Activity Eight

The learning theory that sits well with me personally is humanism. The humanist educator believes there is unlimited potential for human growth given the right circumstances,  encouraging self actualization and autonomy lies at the heart of the theory.

Veterinary Nursing is what they would call in Northern Ireland (where I have lived for most of my adult life) a vocation, a calling. The profession is notoriously poorly paid, the hours are terrible (many VN’s are allow themselves to be on call un-paid) it is not a glamorous job, eau de tomcat being a familiar scent on the VN’s uniform. We do it for the good of the animals. So the humanist assumption that , “people are inherently good and strive for a better world’ (Merriam & Cafella, 1991, p 132.). Seems apt to VN education.

Introducing students to reflective tools can open up a whole new aspect of practice. Traditionally, Veterinary Nurses have been taught the skills, and the theory of the job and been left to their own devices to work out the rest along the way. This is not an ideal situation, Veterinary Nursing practice can be highly emotionally charged, we nurse welfare cases involving neglect and cruelty, we routinely assist with euthanasia, intensive farming is facilitated by the veterinary profession, we may be involved in the care of laboratory animals, the list of issues is long……  In order to offer high standards of care to patients and their owners, a nurse requires a sound understanding of her own ethical stance and emotions. A VN must be equipped with coping strategies. Reflective practice is a core nursing skill that adapts to many aspects of practice. An ability to assess, reflect and improve contributes to wellbeing and encourages self development.  Nursing theory and models of nursing practice adapted from human nursing are relatively new ideas in Veterinary Nursing, it is only just coming to the fore overseas with the advent of VN degrees in the last decade.

Wound management is an ideal subject to introduce reflective tools. It is an ongoing process and the VN’s involvement in the process involves a clear requirement to assess, analyze, reflect, plan, act and  reassess…

So the humanist idea of working to facilitate development of the whole person is the idea, creating a ‘safe space’ to learn and develop through reflective practice is my goal. My flexible learning plan aims to increase my ability to connect with the distance students. This is the real challenge. I hope the increase in online contact through adobe and forum activity if managed carefully may improve the chances of achieving genuine connections with students as individuals.  

‘it’s not just enthusiasm for our subject that matters. Learners are quick to pick up the vibrations of our enthusiasm for themselves as people. Lecturers who come across as really liking learners- and respecting them and treating them accordingly- do much to inspire learners to learn’.

(Race 2010: p132)

Chapman, A. 2005 Kolbs Learning Styles. Available at:

http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm

Accessed on 16.6.12.

Merriam, S.B. & Caffarella, R.S. (1991). Learning in adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Race, P. 2010 Making Learning Happen. 2^nd Edition. Los Angeles: Sage

Pollard,A. (2005) Reflective Teaching 2^nd Ed. New York: Continuum

Activity Six

Wound management is an advanced nursing skill, both an art and a science. In my opinion this assessment would be better placed in the diploma course. There are more relevant rudimentary wound management topics that would be more suited to the certificate course, recognising complications for example, removing sutures, advising owners about wound care, the physiology of wound healing, and the appropriate use of dressings.  None of this is assessed as far as I know and all of this is essential at this level.

Currently the way the assessment for wound care is conducted is as a task out on its own. The students have to either provide video evidence or be assessed in person choosing and gathering the right equipment setting it up and flushing a wound or simulated wound. There is no requirement for them to prove that they understand the rationale, how often it is recommended a wound be flushed,  what types of wounds would require flushing or what type of dressing would be recommended to promote healing.

This promotes surface learning, “the intention to get the task out of the way with minimum trouble while appearing to meet course requirements” (Biggs 2003 p14).

The students know exactly what they are being assessed on and study only that. The unit standard system encouraging and rewarding mediocrity. This coupled with some students in work placement of questionable value, and most students in placement for a very short amount of time means that the likelihood of students gaining valid real life experience in this area is limited.  

Reflect on the strengths of your plan so far.

With a quality work placement a student would witness real wound management cases and this background knowledge would be picked up from senior nurses and interest stimulated for the student to engage in deep learning. This would happen in some cases and many of our students would employ deep learning on the subject. The aim with activity on the moodle forum would be to encourage these students to share their experiences with the rest of the group, with the use of photos and case studies. Hopefully some passion for the subject would come across.

Where are the gaps in your plan?

The main concern have is finding time in my own schedule to set this up and monitor the forum, additional adobe sessions mean evenings at work, finding valid case photographs. Concerns about student’s permission to photograph patients.

The crux of wound management in practice and the core nursing skill I promote across all subjects I teach is the ability to assess, reflect, plan and apply evidence based nursing interventions.

Although there are excellent youtube videos to use on TED ed for the underpinning knowledge of wound physiology and stages of healing, applying the basic skills of reflective and evidence based practice are not prominent in my plan. Yet….

Set some goals for what you still need to do to develop your plan.

A guest speaker adobe session from one of the big dressing companies might be a valuable addition.

Look at a strategy to connect the basics of the nursing a hospitalised patient unit and tie it in here.

Look out for appropriate case photos.

Biggs, J. (2003) Teaching for quality learning at University 2nd ed. London: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Activity Seven

As a veterinary nurse in practice my motivation for maintaining high standards was for the good of the animals I directly cared for. As a veterinary nurse educator my driving force to promote best practice is still the ability to affect, admittedly indirectly, the level of care of the animals our students will be responsible for. Following on from this idea I see open education resources in veterinary nursing as having the potential to improve animal welfare standards.  People in the developing world are in need of the basic animal husbandry information that we have.   For what reason should we keep the information of how to care for an animal’s health privileged knowledge?

 I have travelled in the third world and witnessed first hand the misuse of animals, especially horses, mules and donkeys. The people caring for these animals income and lives depend on them.  Their poor husbandry practices are due to a lack of evidence based information and resources,  not ill will.  Could free and open information about animal husbandry and health have a positive effect on these peoples lives and on the lives of their animals. How about prevention of infection, or how  to trim a hoof, how to treat a hoof abscess or care for a wound, perhaps  the first signs of dehydration. It is all written in our notes.

Reading back over it all sounds a bit pie in the sky but how many of us use Wikipedia? And who had heard of it ten years, or even five or six years ago.

The benefit we may gain from collaboration with international veterinary nurse and veterinary technician educators would be to encourage the professional veterinary nurses in New Zealand to stand up,  raise their game and match or exceed the standards set for the profession in the USA and Europe.

Activity 5 Flexible Learning Strategies

Hello TED-ed..........Love it.
and heres the link to the document.

Flexible Learning Strategy

Activity 4

Of course there is more work to be done, onward and upward…..

I had a small group of our fulltime on site class for an informal group discussion at the café this week. The outcome of the group’s conversation and Ron’s bush-cam video got me thinking about this idea of access and equity specifically in the area of pronunciation and comprehension of the language of veterinary science. I remember on the first block course of my own VN training a lecturer saying that by the end of the course we will have learned 3000 new words and that if we had 3000 words of a new language  Italian or French for example, we would be pretty much fluent.  

 I am wondering if I may be able to do more support inclusivity across the range of courses (distance and fulltime) we offer at the certificate level. I suppose where I see inequity here is in the opportunity for clinical work experience where this language is imbibed along with the essential skills of the profession. There is a wide variation in the quantity and quality of practical experience for our students in  veterinary clinics. A few have been in a clinic for a number of years and many are complete novices. As it stands there is no requirement for a clinic work placement  to be secured before starting the distance cvn course, consequently some students are now at a major disadvantage still not having been able to secure a placement 4 months in. I was teaching a block course in Auckland to this group and there were 4 or 5 students in the room who had never set foot in a veterinary prep room,  The level of the course content we were delivering depended on some background knowledge, we were effectively speaking a foreign language ‘the needs of the broadest possible range of users’ has not been well enough considered in this instance. We found ourselves attempting to retrofit the fundamental content (including terminology) that has no place at a 4 day block course for 40 students. Ugly indeed.

 So love the idea of the Universal Design for Learning, yes. It all sounds fantastic. The existence of academic achievement gaps, or indeed fundamental knowledge gaps could be reduced on this particular course by becoming less flexible with our entry requirements and stipulating that a student secures x amount of hours per week in a veterinary clinic. Standards of practice in these clinics…. Now there’s a can of worms.

So I have got off the subject of language and pronunciation and things I can feasibly take positive action on, which is where the fulltimers have said they struggle and I have heard the distance students go astray. Having learned anatomy and physiology by correspondence as a 17 year old and suffering as I do from brachygnathia I understand the difficulty of pronouncing choledochus, perhaps it has something to do with my frenulum or my hypertrophic rugae, although I do suspect that my problem lies closer to the hippocampus region, maybe there is a foramen in my ependyma where all that stuff I used to know is escaping from…..

http://www.slideshare.net/derosac/universal-design-for-learning-4833805?src=related_normal&rel=3210361

Working within the realms of possibility

The lissom ladies in N block are down with flexible learning. The infrastructure of flexible learning is in place and veterinary nursing as a department is limber. Our arms and legs are truly akimbo. We work supplely within the constraints of the unyielding unit standard assessment system of assessing this important thing and assessing  that irrelevant thing and missing that other very important thing over there. A little like jumping through hoops. Perhaps that is how the lithe ladies in the veterinary nursing department became such sprightly and responsive creatures.

Examples of flexibility in teaching and learning of animal care and veterinary nursing appear all over N block, in fact all over NZ. We got face to face, blended, online, our place, your place, block course, work placement hours, part time, fulltime, any level, anywhere. Need an extension- no problem. Show us your practical, written, video, moodle test, audio photograph assessment or industry verification book, you want that in te reo- kaore raruraru. Hand it in pen and paper and snail mail, we don’t mind a bit…really, it’s true. pen drive, CD upload to moodle, youtube, what ever is your thing. Got a mobile phone we will text you assessment due dates, Smart phone? gotta radiography app for you, Ipad? hell yes, we are on it, we are all over it. Need social interaction? talk to your class rep, tutor, lecturer,  course co-ordinator programme manager, work placement supervisor, head of school.  Pick up the phone, come on in in person, email or skype, video conference, adobe connect, facebook us or post on moodle forum, sustainability blog, we got lists of people can help you, we have meetings about how we can be more accommodating. We are here for you. Need to know how to monitor anaesthesia, got a cat spay dog neuter clinical exam do it here or at work, pregnant bitch? litter of puppies? Bring them it to class, we love it. Sell some dog food out of reception, industry rep come talk to us here…Tell us all about it…. Want to have a pub quiz, want to dance? class quiz, make clinical resources for the future? Small group, large group work alone. Raise money for the SPCA organise and run doggie day out. Voluntary service abroad in animal clinic Pacific Islands we can put you in touch with our man in Avarua. Our finger is on the pulse. How about drawing kidney anatomy in chalk on the ground outside? Keep a menagerie of small furries in the art department garden? Perhaps it is a pony you need to practice your skills, we understand we will bring one here, for you. That’s the kind of people we are.

You want fries with that?

Activity 2

Finally getting around to the blog after all my fine intentions of catching up over the holidays went unfulfilled. So here it is week 2 activity. I managed to have a chat with Cheryl before the holidays about what flexible learning means to us.

What does flexible learning mean to me??

I have taken a few different courses of study since leaving school in varied formats; none of these courses were the conventional face to face lecture hall arrangement.

 I took a Naturopathy course straight out of school a roll on roll off ‘correspondence course’ as it was known in those days. Very flexible at the time. The only entry requirement on the brochure advertising the course was that entrants must be 21 years of age. I contacted the school and this requirement was waived in a phone conversation. As a private college in its early days I suspect that the only requirement really was an ability to pay the fees.  Reams of paper in the post, self managed study, twice yearly residential block courses and work experience hours to be filled. As a 17 year old it was difficult to stay motivated and on track, especially as the years wore on. A big cramming session to pass the exams each year and a lot of partying as I recall The final research project sat on my back burner for a number of years. The most value I got from the course was out of a fantastic work placement. I was fortunate to meet a remarkable mentor who has remained a great source of learning for me in many fields.

I trained as a Veterinary Nurse in the UK. Although the course was not  conventional face to face learning it could not be described as highly flexible. Strict entry requirements in English maths and biology from school, although if these were not met a one year pre nursing  course was an option. We trained in practice, old school as human nurses used to be trained.  There was a requirement that a certain number of hours (from memory 2000) were completed in a veterinary practice that met standards dictated by the awarding body. A full time job in a training practice was required. These were like hens teeth.   We attended residential block courses on set dates three times a year, completed a (large) portfolio of evidence in practice, we were mentored and assessed by a senior nurse at work. At the end of each year scary external examinations, theory and practical. Although this course was not big on flexibility I would describe it as effective. It produced a high standard of graduate, not only work ready but with jobs already. Starting was the most difficult part, later as a head nurse I advertised for a student VN and got 57 replies.

More recently I studied Breastfeeding Counselling with the National Childbirth Trust (parenting charity in the UK)  and University of Bedfordshire. The aim of this course was to train counsellors for the NCT national breastfeeding helpline This course has been set up to suit mothers of young children and was highly flexible. The only entry requirement was to have breastfed a baby for 6 months. It was roll on roll off with capacity for taking breaks around newborns and family dramas. Self paced study with optional Sunday workshops once a month (babies welcomed). The only real requirement was 2 weekend workshops held in England (a hassle for the Northern Irish contingent with young children although we were able to take our babies along with a caregiver) but they were looking at running these locally. Staying motivated was the main issue for most of the women on the course, busy with young families and whatever else. The Sunday workshops did help to keep the group focused. There was an internet forum for those inclined to post on internet, tutors available anytime by email or phone and numerous coffee groups and meetings, social events and the like. Although many women took five years or more to finish we were kept on track by our peers and tutors and enabled to find our own learning situation within the course.

These courses were each flexible in different ways, some more so some less. My response to all of them was the same.  Theory in short bursts of intense activity late at night, text book and in front of a computer, or with text book and pen and paper for the first one (yes it was that long ago). Practical by doing, on the job. I have my way of learning, it is old school, it works for me and I make it fit whatever way the course is set up. Flexible learning is about providing choice, not only for the reader writers like myself whom the old school education system embraces but for everyone.