Deliberate practice and acquisition of expert performance theory in nursing

 

 Introduction

Deliberate practice can be defined as a type of practice that is purposeful and follows a systematic way of doing things, it demands a lot of attention and has one sole purpose which is to increase the performance of people working in a certain domain. Expert performance evolves over time by utilizing the knowledge and skills acquired through deliberate practice. The process of becoming a novice nurse for a graduate nurse is quite hard thus making the nurses experience a hard time while adjusting to their professional career.  The demand to increase accountability of health care and medical practitioners has led to the rise of curiosity on how nurses increase their performance in their line of work. The development of expertise and performance has been associated with deliberate practice in almost all the domains but not much is known about how deliberate practice helps increase expertise in the field of nursing.

 The skills and clinical reasoning needed to be achieved by nurses are very important. Therefore, those educating nurses should take it upon themselves and provide a learning experience that will help these students make connections between theoretical ideas and clinical practices. Deliberate practice is one of the ways that can be used to help these students connect these two, the more they repeat these practices the more they are likely to acquire mastery in their profession (Ericsson, 2009). Deliberate practise can help a graduate nurse transition to a competent novice nurse who will deliver effective health care to the patients.

Different levels of performances in the fields of nursing can only be attained through deliberate practice over time, although this does not mean that the time these nurses are involved in deliberate practices equals the skills they have acquired. Nurses should maximize the time they use in deliberate practice in order to attain a level of expertise. The process of maximizing deliberate practice is not easy and it is well known that it can take more than ten years, it is a process full of constraints. These nurses need to avail themselves to their teachers. Deliberate practice is an instrumental tool in improving their performance (Grassley, Strohfus, & Lambe, 2016). Deliberate practice gives a graduate nurse an opportunity to practice the theoretical ideas they learned and make mistakes that they would not be required to make in a clinical setting.

As much as deliberate practice enhances the skills of a student it improves their confidence. This practice is always worthwhile. It gives these trainees a chance to make and correct the mistakes they were most likely to make in the future. Rectification of their mistake gives them the confidence that they will make competent nurses. Deliberate practice enhances critical thinking as a skill, critical thinking is an important aspect that all nurses should have so as to be able to make good decisions that affect patients. Often students appreciate the chance to make mistakes (Smith, Carpenter, Fitzpatrick, 2015). When this practice is evaluated it demonstrates that students from all domains including nursing retain the skill and mastery from the practice.

The clinical environment is always changing; therefore, it is a necessity that nursing students should able to think critically, have confidence in the decisions they make, and be able to evaluate the errors they make along the way in their profession. Deliberate practice is responsible for making them experts in their field since it provides them with strategies that helps them enhance their skills and reasoning (Smith, Carpenter, Fitzpatrick, 2015). The ultimate goal of the nursing profession is to offer effective care and deliberate practice helps towards the accomplishment of this goal. Taking into account factors such as education and experience deliberate practice is responsible for the competence that the nurses who are at the peak of their career demonstrate.

For a nurse to improve his/her performance which will mean that she has acquired expertise in her line of work she will require a lot of deliberate practice, but as stated early this practice is not short lived or an easy task, engaging in it for a long time does not necessarily mean that one will become an expert. Chances of also engaging in this practice for a long time and failing to be an expert are also high. Acknowledging that deliberate practice is hard, it requires a lot of attention but it works, is the first step of becoming an expert (Mumford, 2012). This practice is characterized by several elements; it has to be repeated a lot, it is designed to improve performance especially with the help of a teacher, it is highly demanding mentally, and feedback is always immediate.

Nursing is an intellectual field; nurses may become knowledgeable enough to work in their line of work but that does not mean they have outgrown the benefits that are gotten from teachers. Everyone needs a teacher even those who are at the peak of their profession. It is the ability of the teacher to view then in a different perspective from the one they view themselves that makes them need a teacher.  A nurse practicing the normal things she knows is in her comfort zone therefore this does not help her improve her expertise because he/she can already do those activities. Nurses often find themselves operating in a panic zone therefore it is advisable that they increase their performance in such zones (Reisberg, 2013). Deliberate practice in such zones will increase their expertise with time. It is advisable that when engaging in deliberate practice they should venture out of their comfort zone and increase their skills while in the learning zone and panic zone.

Repetition is another element that defines deliberate practice, repetition in the comfort zone cannot be considered as practice. For a nurse to be really engaging in deliberate practice she must be practicing her profession in the learning zone and panic zone and at the same time receiving feedback from the teachers. Another element that defines deliberate practice is feedback. Practice without getting evaluated and feedback is pointless since one will not be making any progress.  Working on something for a long time without seeing the results will not increase one’s performance, and will just make the individual stop caring (Reisberg, 2013). This practice is also mentally demanding, doing things in the comfort zone is fun but breaking down tasks in the learning and panic zone is not at all fun since perfecting on these two areas can require a lot of effort.

Nurses are people who are much involved in laboratory practices and in such cases, it is always advisable for various reasons that when working on their expertise in such areas it is best to conduct deliberate practice alone. These are areas that take intense concentration and other people can be distraction. Motivation needed in such areas has to be self-generated and also the person has to be working on a task that is challenging (Ericsson, 2009). This shows that solitude plays a major role in deliberate practice. For nurses to become competent their performance evolves over time by deliberate practice. With continuous practice and feedback a nurse is able to demonstrate exceptional performance.

Conclusion

Deliberate practice can be defined as a systematic way of doing things with a certain purpose. Continuous deliberate practice results to acquisition of expert performance in the nursing domain. The process of transitioning from being a graduate nurse to a novice nurse is a difficult process since a lot of competence is needed from them therefore it is only right to question where the nurses responsible for delivering this care get their competence. The skills needed by a nurse are very important and there is no room for making mistakes while practicing their profession, therefore, deliberate practice where they are given room to make mistakes and correct them is very important. Deliberate practice is responsible for increasing confidence and thinking ability which contributes to nurses’ competence. This practice is defined by elements such as repetition and feedback. Also, solitude can be another element that defines this practice in nursing, it is advisable to perfection practices in the laboratory alone to avoid distraction and to self-motivate oneself. Using all the information gathered above the fact that deliberate practice in the field of nursing results to acquisition of expertise in that field cannot be disputed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Ericsson, K. A. (2009). Development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert    performance and design of optimal learning environments. New York: Cambridge          University Press.

Grassley, J. S., Strohfus, P., & Lambe, A. (2016). Transition from Clinical Expert to Novice         Academic Nurse Educator: A Metasynthesis of Qualitative       Evidence. International           Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare.

Smith, J. M., Carpenter, R., Fitzpatrick, J. J., (2015). Encyclopedia of nursing        education.       New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Mumford, M. D. (2012). Handbook of organizational creativity. Amsterdam: Academic Press.

Reisberg, D. (2013). The Oxford handbook of cognitive psychology. Oxford: Oxford University   Press