“If I hadn’t done the course, I wouldn’t know a lot of the details around delivering learning.”
Maria is a Diabetes Nurse Clinic Specialist. She educates patients with diabetes, as well as ward staff, GPs, practice staff, and others. She admits that prior to completing this course her delivery was a bit off-the-cuff.
But, it’s a different story now. Maria identifies who’s in the room, who her learners are and what their needs might be. She also thinks about where they’re coming from in terms of their educational backgrounds and changes the way she delivers accordingly. ‘It’s important to break things right down and simplify things so that the information is understood.’
Maria is presently planning a pilot project pitched at going into homes and providing a more culturally appropriate package around diabetes education for Māori families. She says, ‘I understand that I need to use a lot more visual tools and I know that I’ll be talking to a lot of different generations in the one room. I’m doing a lot of planning around that. I have a list of outcomes, which include people being better informed and awareness of the needs of the whole whānau. This course has been perfect to help me with that.
Actually, if I hadn’t done this course, I would have just rocked up and delivered something. In reality, it’s a lot of planning. The education plan and the tools we were given as part of the course were very helpful. Realistically, if I hadn’t done the course, I wouldn’t have known that sort of stuff.
Earlier this year I was really chuffed. I was asked to teach one of the papers at the nursing school. Although I was too committed to accept, I thought that’s the kind of opportunity that comes from completing courses such as these.’