Innovation Award

Natalie Walker, MSN, CRNP is a Nurse Practitioner at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the 2020 APSNA Innovation Award winner for her project titled: A novel approach to teaching a surgical skills fair to nurses: Utilizing the Surgical Technology and Technique ( STaT ) Lab and applying principles of cognitive learning theory.

Ms. Walker writes “our goal was to utilize our STaT lab to teach a surgical skills fair to nurses while incorporating the six concepts of cognitive learning theory: retrieval practice; spaced learning; interleaving; self-practice; reflection; and elaboration (McSparron et al 2018). The surgical skills fair focused on teaching skills related to all types of surgical drains, chest tubes, enteral and cecostomy tubes, as well as, ostomy care. The teaching style utilized offered maximal “hands on" learning and minimized use of repetitive power point slides. Nurses were provided protected time away from the clinical environment to learn and reflect. Although novel, the approach would optimize clinician to bedside nurse dialogue of basic knowledge concepts, critical action steps and complex principles. Our hope was that this skills fair would be a catalyst for change in the way we approach teaching surgical nurses.

For various reasons, there has been a growing proportion of novice nurses on the surgical floor at our institution. Nursing turnover has resulted in less experienced nurses acting as a resource to the beginner. This in turn creates a knowledge gap of critical thinking. At baseline nursing education can be a challenging process. The logistics of varying schedules, management of care for continued high volume and complex pediatric surgical patients, learning types, experience level and financial availability continue to pose questions of optimal learning platforms and technique. Traditionally, nursing education is provided in a lecture style/PowerPoint format in a "lunch and learn" environment. Teaching sessions are often rushed and not well attended.

The Skills fair was overwhelmingly successful. Since 2018, we continue to offer this class quarterly at our institution. We continue to critically evaluate the class using survey monkey and have made adaptions when applicable. We have enrolled 24 more nurses and 2 APNs since its inauguration. The nurses loved this teaching style so much that we have started to have small breakout sessions such as a 1 hour “hands on” session focused on chest tube management. This work directly aligns with APSNA’s mission to promote excellence in pediatric surgical nursing practice through research, professional collaboration and peer support. This skills fair could easily be replicated by any APSNA member that desires a truly rewarding teaching experience. Our future plans include a publication of our curriculum to include a user manual of sorts, so that the teacher can pose thought provoking questions and provide real life scenarios.”

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