Currently, there is a greater emphasis on the need to improve the quality of healthcare services while at the same time improving patient’s outcome. Nurses play a critical role in improving the quality of healthcare services. As a result, they require continuous learning and training, which are always provided by nurse educators. Facilitation is one of the major roles of a nurse educator, especially concerning improving the knowledge and skills of practicing nurses. Hence, it is important to understand the role of a nurse educator as a facilitator.
Definition of Facilitation
Facilitation is basically defined as the process by which a nurse educator makes work easier for others, especially nurses ( Cranley et al ., 2017) . It is the technical support that enables individuals to change their behaviors, skills, and attitudes to achieve the set goals and objective. Facilitation can also be defined as the process of enabling individuals or group of people in the execution of evidence into practice or guiding people to work towards achieving the set goals effectively. Facilitation, therefore, is about helping others to obtain the desired results or objectives ( Cranley et al ., 2017) . Facilitation is not only a method but also a strategy for learning because it encourages critical thinking. Hence, the role of nurse educator as a facilitator is essential in the nursing field and should be embraced by all nurses to improve the quality of nursing care and patient outcome.
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Historical Information about the Development of the Role
Facilitation in nursing can be traced back to the 1980s, mainly due to the increased prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Facilitation primarily emerged in the 1980s because of the need to enhance prevention and early detection of chronic illnesses in various parts of the world. At the same time, the desire to effectively manage long-term diseases such as asthma and diabetes led to the emergence of the concept of facilitation in nursing. Practice facilitation was first used at the Oxford Prevention of Heart Attack and Stroke Project (the Oxford Project) in the United Kingdom between 1982 and 1984 ( Mulcahy et al ., 2018) . Nurse educators were used in this project to facilitate and support nurses and other clinicians who were involved in the program. Findings from the project revealed that facilitation significantly improved patients’ outcome and well-being. Nurse educators have been providing facilitation since then, and the practice is increasing in popularity in the nursing field.
Responsibilities and Necessary Preparations
According to Cranley et al . (2017), some of the significant roles of a nurse educator as a facilitator include acting as an opinion leader, coach and mentor, and practice facilitator. However, Cranley et al . (2017) found that the primary responsibility of facilitators is to drive and motivate practice change. At the same time, facilitators act as necessary resources required to make the desired change. Mulcahy et al . (2018) also argue that the role of a nurse educator as facilitator involves enabling of helping others to find solutions to merging problems independently. Therefore, the responsibility of a facilitator is not to be directive but to guide others towards making the right decisions. Also, the role of a nurse educator as a facilitator is to manage work routines (Mattsson et al ., 2014). As a facilitator, a nurse educator if nurses or students perform the assigned tasks as required. Besides, the facilitator can redirect the intervention to achieve the required outcomes. Furthermore, the facilitator should assist nurses and learners on ways of performing certain tasks. Hence, there are many responsibilities performed by a nurse educator as a facilitator.
However, some preparations should be done by facilitators. First, facilitation requires special skills a nurse educator must acquire formal training as either an internal or external facilitator (Cranley et al ., 2017). The second major preparation is teamwork, as facilitation involves working with a large number of people in a team to achieve the goals and objectives. The guiding role of facilitator requires teamwork skills and experience (Mattsson et al ., 2014). Besides, a facilitator should have in-depth knowledge on the learners to use the appropriate skills. Therefore, a nurse educator must prepare for his or her role as a facilitator.
Barriers and Facilitators to the Efficient Performance of the Role
Role conflict is one of the major barriers to the efficient performance of facilitation role. In many cases, nurse educators are required to train nurses while at the same time providing nursing care services, leading to role conflict. Besides, nurse educators are expected to work within their specialties despite the dynamic and diversity of role of nurses. Hence, role conflict or ambiguity is the major barrier. The second major barrier is the shortage of nurse educators. The shortage of nurses forces them to provide primary care instead of a facilitation role. However, the many training opportunities are the major facilitator for the efficient performance of the role of facilitation ( Mulcahy et al ., 2018) . Nurses can now easily access training opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills about facilitation role.
Therefore, I would strive to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to work as a facilitator. I will take advantage of the training opportunities gain a higher level of education and acquire the necessary competencies that a nurse educator needs to become a facilitator. Besides, I will specialize as a nurse educator to avoid ambiguity or conflict in my roles. I believe that nurse educators required advanced knowledge and skills to act as a facilitator.
Conclusion
The role of nurses is rapidly changing, especially due to changing human demographics and the emergence of new diseases. The role of nurses is no longer restricted to the provision of care, but they can also be educators and facilitators. Facilitation in nursing is not a new concept as it started way back in the 1980s. Hence, I would like to be a nurse facilitator in the future.
References
Cranley, L. A., Cummings, G. G., Profetto-McGrath, J., Toth, F., & Estabrooks, C. A. (2017). Facilitation roles and characteristics associated with research use by healthcare professionals: a scoping review. BMJ Open , 7 (8).
Mattsson, J., Forsner, M., & Bolander L. K. (2014). Facilitation of learning in specialist nursing training in the PICU: the supervisors´ concerns in the learning situation. Nurse Education in Practice , 4 (12).
Mulcahy, M., Lowry, C., Hoban, K., & Perry, L. (2018). Perspectives and experiences of nurses as facilitators within a Practice Development program. Collegian , 25 (1), 3-10.
