Clinical Teaching Strategies

Henry Mintzberg stated that persons use "strategy" in a variety of ways, in his 1994 book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, points. Among these the most common are that a strategy is a plan, a "how," a means of getting from here to there, a strategy is a pattern in actions over time, strategy is position and a strategy is perspective, that is, vision and direction.

Strategies emerge over time as intentions and a changing reality correlate (Mintzberg, 1994). British Council (2009) states that an approach is a way of looking at teaching and learning, approaches deal with general philosophies of teaching and strategies with specific actions. The goal of this paper is to identify and explain briefly some of these approaches and strategies.

Clinical teaching can be defined as teaching and learning aimed toward and directly involving, the patients and their specific problems or diagnoses (Spencer, 2003). Teaching in the clinical environment and its approaches will vary depending upon the level of the students being taught ( Ramini & Leinster, 2008). In the time gone by, the focus of nursing education was mainly on theoretical education hence causing a great gap between theoretical and clinical education, theory and practical as lamanly put. As a result of such it was reported by a vast numbers of nursing researchers that student nurses lacked practical skills inspite of the great amount of theoretical knowledge. The quality of care being delivered decreased daily because of the number of unskilled nursing students that have been placed into the health care

It is known as such because of the limited time availability for clinical teaching, it gives way for a simple framework for teaching during daily patient care (Neher et al., 1992). Muthamilselvi, (2014) stated that teaching in the clinical setting is supported by mutual trust and respect. Clinical learning and teaching should be aimed toward focus on essential knowledge, skill and attitude. As it relates to nursing there are teaching strategies and approaches such as: Bedside Clinic which always help to study the specific problems associated with a particular disease or disorder, the patients’ presence is always required for this. It can be conducted by the either the head nurse of a particular ward or the clinical instructor. Student nurses get an opportunity to observe, analyze and be a part of decision making in nursing care and because of this they remember the nursing measures for longer time periods since they are directly involved. Nursing Care Conference is almost identical to the bedside clinic but is different because the patient does not have to be present for the class. When the group has themselves familiarized with the patient, this method is usually chosen. Both methods can be instrumental in the evaluation the students and should be planned earlier for maximum effectiveness. Although it is so the nurse instructor could promote on spot evaluation at times. Nursing Rounds is