Reflections on the innovative use of storytelling to develop students’ leadership skills Pt 2: Student & Leader Reflections

PART 2: Student and Leader Reflection

By Chelsey Nelson, 4th year UVic BSN St,
Tina Choi, 4th year UVic BSN St

and featuring Dawn Nedzelski, RN BSN MA St.,
Chief Nursing Officer & Chief of Professional Practice, Island Health

and Jennifer Matheson Parkhill, RN MHS,
Project Manager, Surgical Services, Island Health

Introduction

We want to share with you some of our thoughts about the process of working on this project. We became involved in this project late September while we were in our Nurse 456 course on leadership in the nursing profession. As student nurses, we have come to learn that the reflection process is concurrent with most of the projects and assignments that we participate in. We have realized that reflection is part of the experiential learning process that helps us make sense of our experience and expose improvements and gaps in our knowledge. Through this Health Talks project, we reflected on our experience through a critical lens and found new insight on the challenges and strengths of working on projects that entail leadership that we had not come across in our academic path.

Video of Chelsey Nelson and Tina Choi Introducing the Project and Process

Experiential knowledge is the first thing that comes to mind when we think about new learning. Through shadowing and collaborating with professionals in our own profession and other disciplines, we have gained knowledge through their shared stories. That form of knowledge translation is how we understood their perspectives and their expertise in the field. As students, we believe that experiential knowledge is how we gain access or sneak peaks of what to expect from our future practice.

Video of Interview with Dawn Nedzelski, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief of Professional Practice Island Health

In reflecting upon this experience, we realized how important communication is for all leaders. When developing a presentation with multiple individuals involved, one must ask questions to gain an understanding of all who are involved. This has been a concept that has been relevant throughout our entire nursing education, however, during the devel-opment of this presentation we were able to gain knowledge around communication in a different setting.

Through this project, we have gained monumental knowledge and experience. We want to thank all of those who have been patient and supportive of our endeavors. We hope that this collaborative process between students and professionals from interdisciplinary teams can readily continue throughout the years. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our reflections with you all. Now we would like to open up the floor for discussion.

Video of Interview with  Jennifer Matheson Parkhill, RN MHS, Project Manager, Surgical Services, Island Health

Interview/Editing Process

In completing the interviews, we had to open an account with WebEx to gain access to the online video conferencing software. We contacted all participants, who needed to be in-terviewed and set-up appointments with each individual. At the beginning of conducting the interviews, we would tell the participants that we were going to be recording the in-terviews and showing them at the Health Talks. When conducting the interviews, we had three questions that we would ask the participants and then receive their responses. Once the interviews were complete, we had to convert the files into mp4 format. The editing process was done using iMovie, an Apple editing software. When we edited we made sure that we cut out any time that no one was talking so that we could keep the videos within the three to five minutes that was allotted for each interview. We then put the interviews onto an USB drive to transfer them onto the computer we used for the Health Talks.

Biographies

Chelsey Nelson

Chelsey Nelson is a fourth year, student nurse from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Chelsey grew up in the Okanagan, the City of Kelowna, British Columbia. It was there that Chelsey became devoted in her studies prior to University and devoted her extra time volunteering at the Kelowna General Hospital. Chelsey is a very dedicated individual, who is devoted to her academics and life goals of becoming a Registered Nurse. Currently, Chelsey is completing her final year of her Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Chelsey would love to specialize in Cardiac Nursing, one day.

Tina Choi

Tina Choi is a fourth year nursing student at the University of Victoria. She is from Vancouver, British Columbia. Tina hopes to pursue her Masters in nursing and work with special populations..

Dawn Nedzelski

Dawn Nedzelski is the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief of Professional Practice for Island Health in British Columbia. Dawn has worked as a nurse for over 30 years, and has served Island Health and Island Health’s predecessor organizations extensively in a variety of front line roles, including Emergency, ICU, and Gorge Rehabilitation. Dawn has served in leadership positions including Clinical Nurse Educator, a variety of manager roles, and most recently as Director, Community Hospitals. For her outstanding work Dawn has received recognition from HEABC with the Health Hero Award and was also presented with the BC Achievement Award for Volunteering and Leadership. As CPP/CNO, Dawn supports ongoing work related to allied health, nursing and professional practice.

Jennifer Matheson Parkhill

I am originally from Nova Scotia where I completed my RN diploma and subsequently my BScN and worked until 2009. I have 26 years experience as an RN . I worked for 13 years in bedside roles in Ortho, Surgical Float Pool, ICU and CCU before becoming a manager in 2003. I completed a Masters in Health Studies in 2012. My management portfolios have included ICU/CCU, Medicine/Cardiology and Ortho/Rehab. I am currently working as a project manager with Surgical Services in Island Health. The focus of the project is decreasing surgical wait times as improving patient experience with a focus on total hip and knee replacements in South Island.