Observations

I realized the importance of keen observations during the course of our training. It is very important to be observant as we need to be able to tell what the patient whom you are caring for of their intentions. There was so much non-verbal communications going on when interacting with the patients that sometimes even not speaking the same language, we can also communicate with each other.

Observational skills also allow the student nurse to be more active in the learning process. The important thing to add is that observation works much better with asking questions about the things that you want to clarify and to affirm.

Just observation alone will make you a passive learner whom I feel that it is not a very effective way of learning. If going by a theory I heard of, which says that people can learn 10% from seeing, 10% from hearing, 10% from doing, then I think that the other 70% comes from doing all these at the same time and teaching others!

Now I've got a great reason to be a busybody!