Question

Where are you in Benner's Model of Novice to Expert and why?

How does your Benner's phase affect your interactions within your nursing work environment?

Answer 1

BENNER'S PHILOSOPHY :-(a)Benner worked in a variety of nursing areas including Intensive Care Unit (ICU), medical-surgical, emergency, and coronary. She became interested in not how to do nursing buthow do nurses learn to do nursing.

(b)• practical situations are more complex than they seem and formal methods such as textbook descriptions, theories and models are inadequate to explain the complexities Experience and mastery are required to bring a skill to a higher level.

STAGES OF NOVICE TO EXPERT MODEL:-

She described 5 levels of nursing experience as;

•1) Novice

•2) Advanced beginner

•3) Competent

•4) Proficient

•5) Expert

STAGES OF NOVICE TO EXPERT MODEL ARE:-

(1.)Novice:-

• Beginner with no experience

• Taught general rules to help perform tasks

• Rules are: context-free, independent of specific cases, and applied universally

• Rule-governed behavior is limited and inflexible

• Example:- “Tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it.”

• Can also apply to experienced nurses in an area or situation of unfamiliarity.

(2.) Advanced Beginner:-

• Demonstrates acceptable performance

• Has gained prior experience in actual situations to recognize

recurring meaningful components

• Principles, based on experiences, begin to be formulated to guide

actions

• Applies to most newly graduated nurses

• Feel highly responsible for managing patient care

• Still rely on the help of the more experienced nurse

• Has marginally competent skills

• Uses theory and principles much of the time

• Experiences difficulty establishing priorities

(3.)Competent Practitioner:-

• Usually applies to nurses with 2-3 years experience

• Coordinates several tasks simultaneously

• Consistent, predictable, and able to manage time

• May display hyper responsibility for the patient

• Begins to recognize patterns

• Determines which elements of the situation warrant attention and

which can be ignored.

(4.)Proficient Practitioner:-

• Usually applies to nurses with 3-5 years experience

• Views patient holistically

• Focuses on long-term goals

• Can see changing relevance in a situation

• No longer relies on preset goals for organization

• Demonstrates increased confidence in their knowledge and abilities

• More holistic understanding improves decision-making

• Learns from experiences what to expect in certain situations and how to modify plans.

(5.) Expert:-

• No longer relies on principles, rules, or guidelines to connect situations and determine actions

• Much more background of experience

• Has intuitive grasp of clinical situations

• Grasps patient needs automatically

• Demonstrates a clinical grasp and resource based practice

• Possesses embodied know-how

• Able to see the “big picture”

• Able to recognize patterns on the basis of deep experiential background

Case study:-

• A nurse, with over 15 years’ experience on the obstetrics floor, is

attempting to teach a new mother how to breast feed her infant. First

thing she does is makes sure the new mother has privacy, that the room is

warm and the lighting is dimmed. The mother is now relaxed and comforted by her surroundings. The nurse proceeds to explain to the mother about how to hold her infant and get him to latch on to her breast. She shows the mother a pamphlet with pictures explaining how this is done. The mother is still a bit nervous, so the nurse reassures her that she can do this, with explanations of how it benefits the baby. With this done, the mother is ready to try breast feeding for the first time.

The nurse is careful to continue reassuring the new mother and to assist her only when it’s necessary.The nurse notices that the baby still will not latch on to the breast and immediately intervenes before the mother gets discouraged. An explanation is given that different techniques can be used to hold the infant, so they are more comfortable and can latch on better. When the mother places the infant, with instruction fromt he nurse, into the football position the latch on is successful. Of course, the new mother is over joyed but asked the nurse what she will do if she is at home at cannot get the baby to eat. The nurse is fully prepared and is able to get the new motherp hone numbers for local support groups in her area.

Result:-Given the previous scenario, the nurse is in the expert practitioner. As per Patricia Benner’s Novice to Expert theory.

She performs her education with ease even when the situation changes. She performs instinctively and knows her patients needs automatically. She was able to diffuse a potential negative situation with her patient before the patient got discouraged. The nurse was fully prepared to answer all questions and provide outside resources (Nursing Theories).