Guidelines for staff-development programs In organizing staff development offerings, the advisory committee and staff-development director should

develop guidelines for program planners and teachers. The committee should require teachers should evaluate both the process and outcomes of each programe and report results to the vice-president of nursing. Finally, the committee should establish selection criteria for hiring staff development instructors and assigning teaching responsibilities to in-service teachers and clinical nurse specialists The head nurse or patient care managers, in-service teachers, clinical nurse specialists, middle managers, staff development director and vice-president of nursing should share for the educational development of staff nurses. To prevent duplication of efforts, the Advisory committee for staff development should specify the educational role for each contributor The vice-president of nursings responsibility is to allocate educational funds and facilities equitably among all nursing divisions The staff development Directors role is to solicit employee requests for training, identify internal or external experts to teach needed courses, enroll employees in available courses, and preserve records of employees participation in staff development The head nurse or patient care managers role is ti identify staff members having nursing and teaching expertise that enable them to teach selected staffdevelopment courses. The head nurses role includes scheduling employees for staff-development activities, serving as preceptor for nurses needing a management practicum, helping employees apply new theories and techniques to practice, and evaluating each nurses achievement of staff development course objectives The staff development instructor Each staff development teacher should possess a high level of nursing knowledge and skill in one clinical specialty. The staff development teachers personal power determines her or his credibility as change agent and role model. Staff development teachers should be skilled in using direct and indirect teaching methods in group and individual education. The advantage of using a health agency employee to teach a staff-development course is the insiders familiarity with the work situation in which the learner must implement new knowledge and skill. The learner also feels more comfortable in contacting the teacher for follow-up instruction when both are employees of the same agency

The course instructor should have a thorough understanding of the subject, display enthusiasm for the topic, present abstract ideas clearly, interrelate theoretical and clinical content and communicate respect for others idea The role of staff-development teacher is not that of information giver but of role model for effective learning When needed information is available in printed, pictorial, or other media, the teacher should devote course time to demonstrating how to extract information from clinical situations, analyze sense data, draw conclusions from observations, manipulate ideas to achieve professional goals, and evaluate outcomes of nursing interventions. He or she should use patient care problems from the students clinical setting as course content and show how observation, investigation, analysis, problem solving, and evaluation should be applied to practice problems. The teacher should also reward students for discovering key facts and relationships on their own, thereby encouraging the type of self-directed learning that culminates in expert status Preferred topics for staff development programs To heighten employees motivation for seeking staff development, course offerings should be linked to employees employment interests and career aspirations. The staff development Advisory committee should poll all employees and managers and interview a representative sample of each group to identify desired course topics. Some topics are selected by nurse managers who identify a lack of employee knowledge or skill that can be remedied through organized instruction. Planning for staff development programs When a topic has been selected for a staff development program, the instructor should write course objectives that specify the exact behavioral change expected of participants. These objectives should be few and written to describe observable behaviour whenever possible and specify conditions under which the desired behaviour is to be observed For instance, at the conclusion of 15 hours of instruction in electrocardiography for nurses, the student will be shown electrocardiographic strips illustrating sinus arrythmia, sinus bradycardia, sinus tachycardia, paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, premature atrial contractions, first degree atrioventricular block, premature ventricular contractions, ventricular tachycardia, and ventricular fibrillation. The student will correctly identify ten of the twelve arrhythmias within a ten-minute period.