Strategies and Practices for Enhancing the Clinical Teaching Quality of Internal Medicine Nursing—A Case Study of Dazhou Central Hospital ()
1. Introduction
With the continuous development of the medical industry, the status of nursing quality in hospital overall service quality is becoming increasingly prominent. Clinical teaching as an important part of nursing education directly affects the cultivation of nursing talents [1]. As a third-class A comprehensive hospital, Dazhou City Central Hospital bears a lot of nursing clinical teaching tasks. This paper analyzes the problems existing in the current internal medicine nursing clinical teaching and puts forward corresponding strategies and practices to improve the quality of teaching.
2. The Current Status and Problems of Nursing Clinical Teaching in Internal Medicine
2.1 Inadequate Faculty Resources
In 2024, Dazhou Central Hospital, as the first batch of standardized training bases for nurses in Sichuan Province, plans to recruit 120 standardized training students for nurses. In the same year, Dazhou Central Hospital also recruited 50 medical nursing staff training students from the society. With the expansion of hospital business, the nursing team continues to grow. The nursing department is responsible for establishing and improving nursing rules and regulations, quality standards, operating procedures, organizing implementation and evaluation, nursing quality and safety management, nurse ideological education and medical ethics assessment and evaluation, nurse legal practice, nurse registration, nurse technical file management, internal allocation and management of nursing staff, nursing discipline construction, nursing innovation, scientific research project management, nursing new technologies, new business management and many other businesses. In nursing clinical teaching, there is a shortage of manpower, and there is a relative shortage of teaching teachers with rich clinical experience and teaching ability [2].
2.2. Traditional Teaching Model
At present, the main mode of nursing clinical teaching in internal medicine is the traditional “one-to-one” or “one-to-many” teaching model. It lacks specificity and individualization.
1) One-to-one mentorship system: This is the most traditional teaching method, in which each intern will be assigned a dedicated mentor to guide them. This method is conducive to close communication between teachers and students, and can provide individualized teaching based on the individual differences of students. The mentor can teach the student through words and deeds, passing on their clinical experience, operation skills, and professional attitude to the student, helping the student adapt to the clinical environment as soon as possible.
2) Regular teaching rounds and case discussions: By regularly organizing teaching rounds and case discussions, students can participate in the analysis and discussion of actual cases, improving their clinical thinking ability and problem-solving ability. In the discussion, students need to put forward their own insights and nursing plans, and the mentor will give guidance and evaluation.
3) Specialized knowledge and skills training: Based on the characteristics of internal medicine, regular specialized knowledge lectures and operational skills training are conducted to ensure that students can master the nursing points and operational skills of common internal medicine diseases. At the same time, the instructor will provide demonstrations and guidance in practical operations to ensure students’ operational norms and safety.
4) Inadequate Training in Emergency Handling: Emergencies may arise in nursing work, and if insufficient attention is paid to training in emergency handling during tutoring, students may lack the ability to handle emergencies in practice.
5) Inadequate Training in Scientific Research Ability: Nursing tutoring should not only teach clinical skills, but also pay attention to training students’ scientific research ability. If personalized training in scientific research ability is ignored during tutoring, it may affect students’ future career development and the overall progress of nursing discipline.
6) Inadequate Integration of Interdisciplinary Knowledge: Modern medicine increasingly emphasizes interdisciplinary cooperation, and if interdisciplinary knowledge is not integrated during tutoring, students may have difficulty cooperating effectively with other professional medical and nursing staff in practice [3].
7) Inadequate Training in Professional Ethics: Nursing tutoring should not only teach professional knowledge and skills, but also pay attention to training students’ professional ethics, including moral standards, work attitudes, and teamwork skills. If insufficient attention is paid to training in professional ethics, it may affect students’ career development and job performance.
2.3. Incomplete Evaluation System
1) Ineffective Teaching Assessment and Feedback Mechanism: The current evaluation system pays too much attention to theoretical examination scores, and does not give enough weight to students’ clinical operation ability and communication ability. Without an effective teaching assessment and feedback mechanism, it may be difficult for tutoring teachers to identify problems in teaching and affect the continuous improvement of teaching quality [4].
2) Unequal allocation of resources: If teaching resources are unevenly distributed, it may result in some students being unable to access sufficient practical opportunities and learning resources, which can affect their learning outcomes [5].
3. Strategies and Practices for Improving the Quality of Clinical Teaching in Internal Medicine Nursing
3.1. Strengthen the Construction of the Teaching Staff
1) Select outstanding nurses as teaching instructors: Select nurses with rich clinical experience, strong sense of responsibility, and good communication skills as teaching instructors.
2) Carry out teacher training: Regularly organize teacher training to improve their teaching ability and level.
3) Establish an incentive mechanism: commend and reward outstanding teaching staff to enhance their work enthusiasm.
3.2. Optimizing the Teaching Mode
1) Implementing phased teaching: Based on the actual situation of students, the teaching process is divided into three stages: foundation, improvement, and consolidation, gradually improving students’ clinical abilities.
2) Adopting diversified teaching methods: combining clinical cases, scenario simulations, group discussions, and other teaching methods to enhance students’ participation and interest.
3.3. Improve Teaching Content
1) Closely integrated with clinical practice: Based on the characteristics of internal medicine nursing, adjust the teaching content to make it more closely related to clinical practice.
2) Emphasize the cultivation of students’ abilities: strengthen training in clinical operations, communication, teamwork, and other aspects.
3.4. Establish a Scientific Evaluation System
1) Improve evaluation criteria: Incorporate students’ theoretical knowledge, clinical skills, communication abilities, teamwork, and other aspects into the evaluation system.
2) Implementation process evaluation: Pay attention to students’ performance during clinical internships, timely identify and solve problems.
4. Conclusions
To improve the quality of clinical teaching in internal medicine nursing, reforms need to be made in terms of teacher team construction, teaching mode, teaching content, and evaluation system. Regularly update teaching content to ensure synchronization with clinical practice. Increase the proportion of practical operations to provide students with more opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge to practice. Implement personalized mentoring programs and provide differentiated teaching tailored to the learning needs of different students. Strengthen communication and humanistic care education to cultivate students’ comprehensive abilities. Improve emergency response training to ensure that trainees are able to respond to various emergency situations. Emphasize the cultivation of scientific research abilities and encourage students to participate in scientific research projects. Promote the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge and cultivate students’ ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines.
For example, the endocrinology and metabolism nursing intern teaching plan: firstly, understand the basic information of the trainees, family and psychological conditions, ask if they need help, and secondly, evaluate the mastery of the trainees’ professional knowledge of endocrinology and metabolism, as well as the operation of basic nursing skills. According to the mastery of the students, the teaching plan is implemented for the students, which is generally divided into four weeks.
The first week will focus on the following theoretical knowledge and practical operations:
1. Theoretical learning
1) Overview of endocrinology and metabolism diseases: diabetes, thyroid diseases, adrenal gland diseases, etc.
2) The effects, side effects and nursing precautions of commonly used drugs in endocrinology and metabolism.
3) Nursing assessment methods: medical history collection, physical examination, auxiliary examination, etc.
2. Practical operation
1) Participate in patient care with the instructor and learn the nursing evaluation process.
2) Basic nursing operations such as blood glucose monitoring and insulin injection.
3) Nursing paperwork writing exercises for general patients.
Week 2: The main theoretical knowledge and specialist nursing operations are explained
1. Theoretical learning
1) Endocrinology and metabolism disease nursing routine. Diagnosis of specialized diseases.
2) Prevention and treatment of complications: hypoglycemia, diabetic foot, thyroid storm, etc.
3) The content and methods of health education in the five troikas of diabetes.
2. Practical operation
1) Use and maintenance of insulin pumps.
2) Nursing procedures for patients with hyperthyroidism.
3) Health education practice to improve communication skills.
Week 3: Mainly explain the theoretical knowledge and specialized operations
1) Follow the teacher to participate in clinical nursing work, be familiar with the work responsibilities of each class, be familiar with the nursing process, and let go of your eyes.
2) Be familiar with the content of the nine knowledge of the patients under their management, and be able to use nursing procedures to carry out nursing work, participate in the observation of patients’ conditions, and learn case analysis.
3) Learn nursing emergency plans and first aid skills.
2. Practical operation
1) Select typical cases, conduct nursing assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation, and participate in teaching rounds.
2) Interns propose solutions based on patients’ care problems.
3) Teach the teacher’s comments and summarize the experience of case nursing.
Week 4: Mainly explain the theoretical knowledge and specialized operations
1. Theoretical knowledge
1) Pay attention to the cultivation of students’ nursing professionalism, such as the cultivation of responsibility, love and patience, and explain the writing of nursing documents for critically ill patients and the implementation of doctor’s orders.
2) Nursing safety and risk management.
3) Understand the theoretical knowledge of the trainees in the first three weeks and the comprehensive situation of specialist nursing operations.
2. Practical operation
1) Lead by example, take students to the ward to care for patients, and achieve five-heart service in daily work.
2) Complete the content of critical care document writing under the guidance of the teacher. Deficiencies are corrected and explained.
3) Ask the students what theoretical knowledge and specialized operations they have not mastered during the endocrinology and metabolism department, review the learning situation in the first three weeks, and focus on explaining and guiding according to the different situations of the students.
Strengthen vocational education and cultivate students’ comprehensive qualities. Establish and improve teaching evaluation and feedback mechanisms, and continuously improve teaching quality. Reasonably allocate teaching resources to ensure that every student has access to good learning opportunities. Through these measures, the teaching quality of nursing guidance at Dazhou Central Hospital can be effectively improved, better meeting practical needs and cultivating more outstanding nursing talents.