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Your Stories
This is where we tell your stories, cover topical issues and promote meaningful initiatives.
"Our responsibility to graduates" with New South Wales-based Clinical Educator, Dalya Holowinski
CRANAplus Member and Riverina-based District Nurse Educator Dalya Holowinski explains the process of identifying the learning needs of the emerging workforce, the roving CNE model, and the responsibilities that established nurses have towards those just starting out.
Thanks for joining us, Dalya. Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a nurse educator?
When helping to start a new hospital, I quickly realised that I loved educating. It took a while before I successfully applied for a CNE role – you’re not always going to be successful the first time you step out your comfort zone.
When I did become a CNE, I sought to develop myself to be a better educator. I looked at how to be a Nurse Educator (NSW Health has CNE, NE 1, NE 2, and NE 3 levels).
I studied a post-graduate degree through University of New England in training and development. The development side helped me with managing performance, which ends up in an educator’s bucket. During this study I was successful in a Nurse Educator role, and quickly developed courses that were missing, and podcasts.
I finished my study and received really good results – I think this gave me the confidence to extend myself again into a NE 2 role, which put me back into critical care.
Working at a major tertiary hospital again made me look at education differently.
During my time there I pushed for change and the development of nurses through collaborative approaches with medical and speciality staff. I was there during COVID which triggered me and my family to say, “Let’s get out of Sydney”.
The role of District Nurse Educator, which is a grade 3 NE, was available – again, it took a few goes, but when the role for Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MHLD) came up, I was ultimately successful. Then it was time to move my whole family, the dog and five chickens.
Congratulations on your growth as an educator. What’s it like to nurse in the Riverina?
At MLHD, we take a caring and supportive direction when it comes to developing our nurses and midwives. You can nurse in two very busy hospitals and see everything you will see at a big metro site. At the multi-purpose service and district hospital sites you become a specialist nurse in everything.
We had a great advertising campaign that you may have seen which includes pictures of cows, llamas, and emus and how these animals have caused injuries which you will see and treat patients for.
We have a roving clinical nurse educator (CNE) model for early career nurse support and development, which means that at whichever site you work, you will always have education.
MLHD has also developed a Virtual Nurse Assist Model where you can call a CNE for anything at any time for support and guidance through patient care, assessment, and treatment.
We have a young district with many young families. There is a lot of farming, canola – it looks beautiful travelling around and seeing emus run through the fields.
We have a huge focus on preserving nature including our koala population at Narrandera.
It sounds like a lovely place to work. Since heading rural, why have you decided to participate in the CRANAplus Nursing and Midwifery Roundtable? Do all nurses have a role to play in advocacy?
I have realised that we need to speak up more for equitable access to health and healthcare education. As part of the Roundtable, we can influence some great collaboration and the development of nurses, midwives, and allied health in rural and remote.
All nurses need to remind themselves of their ‘why’ and their commitment to making our lives better through better patient experiences in healthcare.
As a Nurse Educator, how do you identify the workforce’s learning needs?
Incidents, serious adverse event reviews (SAERs), learning needs analysis, speaking with staff, visiting sites, patient and family feedback, and sometime government recommendations. Even global meetings like International Council of Nurses, or conferences too.
At the 2022 CRANAplus Conference, you presented on this roving CNE model. How successful has this been?
There has been a significant increase in training participation. Our new graduate numbers have increased, and we have been able to do that through providing an educator to come out and work with them.
We’ve got 33 sites, and the roving model contributes to connection and collaboration between them.
Speaking on a national level now, what solutions do you think could bring about a larger, better prepared workforce?
The promotion of nursing as a positive job. We need to remove the negative media and remind ourselves about the good things we can do. It’s a really good job to have, really stable.
We’ve got multiple pathways, we can become Nurse Practitioners. We can achieve so much in nursing.
A rethink of the funding model from the Australian Government would be great. Doctors are not the solution to a lot of workforce supply and nurses and midwives need to be able to work at the top of their scope.
Our universities could do more to produce work-ready graduates and to instil an under-standing of the role and its responsibilities. We need a four-year degree, nurse and midwife internships where we are supernumerary, and to be given Training Education Study Leave (TESL) as in the medical field, so we can
afford to continue our education.
As an educator, what are your thoughts on learning on the job, versus bringing your skills with you to the role?
Well, that’s a curly one, as right now our junior workforce does not always enter the workforce with fully-fledged skills in nursing but will look at things differently and want ‘express’ pathways.
Of course, you have to learn on the job. It’s hard to teach experience, and you can’t be an expert after six months.
But we’ve got to counterbalance that – we need people to be performing at the top of their scope earlier. This has been weighing on my thoughts as an educator lately, and I don’t have the answer. Except to say that we can educate you to be the best in whatever you decide to do, just as long as you stay in nursing and midwifery.
What else can nurses do to support undergraduates and recent graduates?
Nurses need to nurture all our workforce, including our colleagues in allied health and medical. We need to work and train together. There are great initiatives like at John Hopkins Hospital where all the nurses, physios and doctors attend the same orientation – how amazing would that be?
All nurses have a responsibility to encourage others to be nurses, and no matter what our day entails, we need to remember our ‘why’ and how this will bring about a better patient experience.
Interested in joining a clinician roundtable? View current opportunities here.