This domain defines the responsibilities of the CNS to provide a practical/professional environment that encourages education of patients, nurses as well as personal development and growth.
Education and Facilitation
Maximizes educational opportunities to develop other members of the healthcare team, and patients, families, community and society to enhance care delivery and wellbeing.
Performance criteria:
- Acts as a preceptor, mentor, role model and coach to nursing colleagues, learners, other members of the healthcare team and students.
- Collaborates with individuals, groups and educators to identify and address specific learning needs for patients/families and other health care professionals. This may include developing resources or programs to meet those needs.
- Provides/promotes educational programs for patients and families, and health care practitioners within the Corporation and beyond.
- Takes advantage of informal learning opportunities to educate nursing colleagues and health team members.
- Shares and disseminates professional knowledge and research findings with others.
- Acts as a resource person for others.
- Working with educators contributes to the formal and informal education and professional development of learners and colleagues facilitating and where appropriate coordinating learning opportunities.
- Acts as an effective preceptor, undertaking appropriate preparation and updating to undertake the role.
- Identifies and participates in opportunities to share skills, knowledge, and strategies for patient care and system improvement with colleagues and other healthcare providers.
- Promotes a learning environment that enables nursing and other healthcare personnel to make optimal contributions and systems to function most effectively.
- Designs health information and patient education appropriate to the patient’s developmental level, health literacy level, learning needs, readiness to learn, and cultural values and beliefs.
- Participates in academic and continuing education of nurses and other health care providers.
- Promotes and implements professional development of staff nurses and continuing education activities.
- Participates in continuing education activities.
Lifelong learning
Assumes responsibility for own professional development through lifelong learning to ensure continued competence and performance improvement.
Performance criteria:
- Undertakes regular self-assessment and reviews own practice through reflection, peer review, competency assessment, critical examination and evaluation.
- Instigates planned updating knowledge and skills for safe, person-centered, evidence-based practice.
- Actively engages in ongoing professional development and performance improvement of self and others.
- Maintains a professional portfolio including evidence of continued competence, professional development and service improvement.
- Evaluates own clinical and professional performance according to the standards of the appropriate professional and regulatory bodies, and takes action to improve practice.
- Proactively seeks and participates in experiences and learning opportunities that will advance his or her knowledge of interventions, therapeutics, and clinical skills on a regular basis.
- Pursues and participates in formal and independent learning activities to enhance skills in promoting the professional development of nursing personnel.
- Pursues and participates in educational and mentoring opportunities to increase effectiveness as a change agent.
- Contributes to the advancement of the profession as a whole by disseminating outcomes of CNS practice through presentations and publications.
Promotion of health and patient education
Will enable and provide information on maintaining and optimizing health, maximizing self-care and wellbeing.
Performance criteria:
- Takes part in health promotion, patient education and illness prevention initiatives and contributes to their evaluation.
- Applies knowledge of resources available for health promotion and health education.
- Acts to empower the individual, family and community to adopt healthy lifestyles and concord with self-management of ill-health to promote wellbeing.
- Provides relevant health information and patient education to individuals, families and communities to assist in achieving optimal health, rehabilitation and/or wellbeing.
- Demonstrates understanding of traditional healing practices within an individual’s, family’s and/or community’s health belief systems and incorporates appropriately and/or provides education if adversely effecting optimum health.
- Recognizes the potential for patient education and teaching for health and wellbeing in nursing interventions.
- Applies knowledge of a variety of teaching and learning strategies with individuals, families and communities to effect and evaluate learning and concordance with treatment and advice.
