39: Andi

Andi is a registered nurse and works part-time on a general children’s ward in a large district general hospital. Andi has worked on the ward for two years since she qualified. Andi is a good nurse and is very keen to use evidence-based practice and reads nursing journals regularly to keep up to date. The ward manager is encouraging her to start studying for her Masters degree in order to become a senior staff nurse. Andi had achieved good marks throughout her nurse training although she did find the research module particularly hard. Andi has completed her mentorship qualification so regularly mentors student nurses.  

Unfortunately, there are challenges for her to overcome in order to do this:

  1. She works part-time and her ward will only give her pro-rata study leave so some of the studying will have to be done in her own time.
  2. Many of the newly qualified nurses want to start studying for their Masters degree and the Trust has introduced a competitive policy for nurses to apply for funding for their studies.
  3. Andi feels that she has lost confidence in writing academically since she completed her undergraduate degree
  • What would you do if you were Andi?

 

› Suggested answers

Andi should start by talking to people – firstly her ward manager who is encouraging her to undertake her Masters and clearly values her as a member of the team. Perhaps they could identify in her personal development plan what her options are for studying.

Andi should also talk to the university – many universities help and offer support for students who want to refresh their skills at studying. The fact that Andi has studied a Mentorship module and that she has been consistently mentoring students will help as this means she has kept her knowledge current and up-to-date.

Andi reads nursing journals regularly and this helps keep her practice evidence based and up to date. In addition, by reading formal or academic writing it helps you when you come to write your own academic assignments.

There are limited funds for post-qualifying education for nurses and it is not unusual for employers to make it a competitive process as this is seen to be treating all nurses as fairly as possible. Andi should find out what the competitive process is – sometimes it is writing a supportive application demonstrating why you want to study. Alternatively it might be a short interview again to give you the opportunity to show why you want to study and perhaps most importantly how it will impact on your work and the quality of the care that you give.