Dr. Michael Thomas, Nursing Department
I’m very grateful for the Mentoring Environment Grant (MEG) I received in 2015. This grant has brought about positive changes within the College of Nursing at BYU and has helped multiple students have significant mentoring experiences.
Evaluation of Objectives:
1. Have student teaching assistants in the N293 Communication for Nurses Lab course and untrained faculty members attend the TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer course.
-This objective was met at a very high level. Funds from the MEG paid for four student teaching assistants and two faculty members to attend a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer course at a regional training site. At this training, I was able to make a connection with the director of the TeamSTEPPS national implementation team. Through this connection, I was able to coordinate a 2 day TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer course training on-site at BYU for 55 full and part-time faculty, and two student teaching assistants in the College of Nursing. The national implementation team paid for this training, saving the College of Nursing a significant amount of money to get the faculty trained.
2. Student teaching assistants will complete a course improvement project, under the supervision of the faculty course coordinator, after receiving the TeamSTEPPS training.
-This objective was modified after the training. The N293 course had already been altered significantly to incorporate the TeamSTEPPS content into the course. It was decided to have student teaching assistants complete projects to help disseminate TeamSTEPPS in other courses. One student teaching assistant provided clinical faculty a brief TeamSTEPPS training and gave them a summary of what students are learning in the N93 course each week. This has enabled clinical instructors to reinforce the communication skills in clinical that have been taught in the lab course. Two student TA’s taught TeamSTEPPS in an interprofessional healthcare course that included pre-med, pre-dental, dietetics, and nursing students. The last TA provided training to simulation instructors that teach the semester after the N293 course. This has allowed for reinforcement of the TeamSTEPPS skills. This student also collaborated with the faculty course coordinator of this course to create a uniform communication handoff tool. This tool is being utilized in simulation courses in every semester of the nursing program.
Evaluation of the Mentoring Environment:
This MEG has provided students a rich mentoring experience. Student teaching assistants have had the opportunity to be co-trained with faculty in TeamSTEPPS, have copresented at a conference, and have worked with multiple faculty members to help teach TeamSTEPPS in the College of Nursing. Additionally each student teaching assistant works as a peer teacher in the N293 lab course. This experience has been meaningful and empowering for them. A former student assistant who is now graduated and working as a nurse wrote the following:
“I feel like that experience gave me the confidence to boldly advocate for my patient. This has been evident in the way I communicate with other team members and how I always speak up for safety. . . Many of my coworkers have commented on my ability to communicate and advocate for patient safety and I believe I learned those skills through becoming a Master Trainer of TeamSTEPPS and for teaching N293. I have also spoken to my managers and educators about how to incorporate more teaching into my career as a Nurse.” (A. Sandberg, personal communication, October 17, 2017).
Additionally, having students teach their peers in the N293 course has been of great benefit to the students they teach. Positive feedback regarding the use of peer teachers is a consistent them in student evaluations of the course.
Students Mentored/Academic Presentations:
Aubrey Sandberg
McCall VanLeeuwen: Co-presenter at the 2017 TeamSTEPPS National Conference
Abigail Wilkerson: Co-presenter at the 2017 TeamSTEPPS National Conference
Sara Durrant: Co-presenter at the 2017 TeamSTEPPS National Conference
Kapri Beus
Camry Shawcroft
Project Results Summary:
The peer teaching TeamSTEPPS project has been highly successful and has expedited the College of Nursing’s goal of integrating TeamSTEPPS throughout the curriculum. The TeamSTEPPS patient safety communication system has been successfully incorporated into the N293 Communication for Nurses Lab course. This grant has enabled student teaching assistants to receive training that has helped them effectively teach TeamSTEPPS. It has also enabled them to participate in TeamSTEPPS integration projects. These mentored student projects have helped other courses integrate TeamSTEPPS into their curriculum.
This project has benefitted other academic institutions. The students mentored in this project greatly impressed the TeamSTEPPS trainers, members of the national implementation team, and the audience at the 2017 TeamSTEPPS National Conference presentation. After the conference presentation, multiple audience participants expressed their desire to implement similar peer teaching models in their academic programs.
Summary of MEG Utilization:
Travel/Registration/Lodging/Food for Conferences: $8,000
Travel/Registration/Lodging/Food for Training: $8,700
Student Wages: $1,500
Supplies: $1,500
Stats Consult: $300