A Letter to my Future Students

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Dear Future Nursing Students,

Welcome to this nursing course! I’m excited that we will be learning together! I will be supportive and encouraging as you navigate the world of education and journey toward your goal of becoming a nurse. I will provide a safe learning environment where you will explore new ideas and feel comfortable asking questions.

Have you heard of student-centered learning? It was a new idea to me until recently. This approach focuses on the student while the teacher facilitates the learning process. You will actively engage in your learning experience instead of passively receiving instruction from me. Our learning activities will generate an atmosphere of creativity and exploration instead of just sitting and listening to lectures. This will be a challenging process where you build your own knowledge from previous learning experiences and apply it to your nursing practice. Our class will be an exciting, student-centered environment where students work together in teams to collaborate and learn from each other.

My goal is to use creative teaching strategies that will make the learning experience fun and interesting. Prior to exploring the use of technology in nursing education, I wasn’t aware of the many innovative resources available! Together we will discover virtual worlds, blogging, Glogster, Voki, wikis, Moovly, serious gaming, high-fidelity simulations and so much more! Throughout this class you will learn to create, evaluate, and effectively use information, media, and technology. As a result, you will develop the technology competencies that are essential for 21st century nursing practice.

 

I have a strong commitment to ensuring that my students are well prepared for their work in a changing healthcare environment. As your teacher, I will strive to be a source of encouragement and guidance as you prepare to be a professional nurse. I hope you will be stretched and challenged as you learn and yet increasingly confident in your ability to be an excellent nurse.
 
Best Wishes,
Your Future Nurse Educator

Nursing Informatics Knowledge and Competencies - A Self-Assessment!

"It is important then, for nurses to become critically aware of how and why they are using computers in nursing care, and that they become knowledgeable and skilled enough to influence the way nursing care becomes digitized." 
- June Kaminski

I always enjoy taking a self-assessment quiz so it was a fun experience to complete the Nursing Informatics Competencies assessment! The online P.A.T.C.H. Attitude Scale provides an analysis of your current expertise and attitudes towards computers. My final results were 92% out of a maximum of 100%. The feedback in these results stated: Very confident that they can learn to use a computer to boost creativity, and perform routine functions. Recognizes the unique value of using information technology in society. Idealistic, positive view related to computer applications in healthcare. I think that’s a good assessment of my approach to computers and technology. I am naturally drawn to computers and feel confident using them. I definitely see the importance and benefits of computer applications in healthcare! I thought the quiz would “assign” me to a level of competency but I didn’t see that in the results. However, there was another section of this website that gave detailed descriptions of the User, Modifier, and Innovator Levels. I seem to fit into the Modifier level in my ability to use information and communication technology.

During this Nursing Informatics module, I have explored different technology tools, programs and resources that I will be able to use as a future nurse educator. Each week we have been given a new “Technology Challenge” where we have been introduced to Voki, Glogster, Moovly, Snag-It, and Prezi. Each of these technologies was new to me, and I experienced a learning curve with each one. I know I will become more proficient in using them as I become more experienced. They will be important tools that will create a more engaged and interactive learning environment for my students!

As a future nurse educator, I will continue to learn about new technologies and develop my level of knowledge and skill in this area. I want to be well informed and competent in the use of technology so that my students will view me as a role model for their own nursing practice. I am committed to helping my students develop the informatics competencies that are essential in providing safe and quality nursing care.  

Feed Forward and Authentic Assessment…Future Focused with Real World Application!

“The purpose of feedback in the learning process is to improve a student’s performance. The ultimate goal of feedback is to provide students with an ‘I can do this’ attitude.” – Laura Reynolds

I like this quote because it reminds me that the goal of feedback is to motivate the student and give them confidence as they continue learning! Sometimes feedback only dwells on past mistakes without giving an opportunity for improvement. Feed Forward is a future focused style of feedback that gives positive suggestions for student progress. This approach helps students feel supported and encouraged which inspires them to achieve their goals and improve their performance. I like the “feedback sandwich method” where the teacher identifies the student’s strengths, then discusses areas for improvement, and ends with ways for the student to succeed. I think effective feedback occurs frequently during the learning process while the student still has time to make corrections.  In my role as a nurse educator, I will endeavor to give continuous feedback that is constructive, timely, and future focused. 

Authentic assessment is a method of evaluating student learning based on experiences that resemble "real world" activities. This type of assessment differs from traditional assessment that evaluates the retention of memorized facts using multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and true-false test items. With authentic assessment, students demonstrate learning in ways that imitate real world practice outside of the classroom. Methods of authentic assessment include simulation, portfolios, interviews, writing, and creative learning projects. Authentic and Traditional assessments complement each other and provide a complete understanding of the student’s knowledge and skill. As a nurse educator, I will use a combination of these two assessments. I think traditional testing will help my students prepare for taking the NCLEX examination. I will also use authentic assessments in my classroom to measure the student’s critical thinking skills and ability to make clinically sound decisions.  

 

 

 

Teamwork and Technology…Doing more together!

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

Health care is a diverse field where many specialties interact to provide patient care. I remember the “old days” of the hierarchical approach in healthcare. Now that style is transitioning to teamwork among all the specialties.  It has become increasingly important for the various disciplines to collaborate together in order to provide safe, quality and seamless care for all patients. In order to develop an appreciation for the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, students must be introduced to other health care disciplines during their education. Colleges need to offer interdisciplinary educational opportunities so that students will gain an understanding and appreciation for the various roles of each discipline before they enter the health workforce.

Technology is playing a vital role in the goal of teaching interdisciplinary collaboration. High fidelity simulation gives students an opportunity to develop clinical and interpersonal skills that they will need in 21^st century health care. Introducing collaboration in the safe, controlled environment of simulation is the best place to familiarize students with this concept. These simulation experiences promote communication, teamwork, delegation, priority setting, and leadership skills. The simulation of a mock code with medical, nursing, respiratory, and pharmacy students helps them to see their shared roles and responsibilities in caring for patients. This gives students a chance to identify the similarities and differences in their various roles and learn how to cooperate together.

An interdisciplinary approach in health care involves different professions contributing to patient care for a common goal. For interdisciplinary collaboration to be successful, trust and mutual respect are essential. The early exposure of students to interdisciplinary collaboration supports the graduate nurse in becoming a valuable team player in the 21^st century health care environment.

Interactive Learning with Technology – Oh…the Possibilities!

 

"Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information."

-Albert Einstein 

An amazing variety of technology resources are available for the nurse educator to create an interactive and fun learning environment for students! Teachers can use these tools to increase students’ engagement in active learning and provide real-world experiences. The possibilities seem endless for the creative teacher who uses interactive teaching strategies to help students understand, remember, and apply knowledge. High fidelity simulations provide an opportunity for students to develop skills and competencies that prepare them for future nursing practice. Other cutting-edge technology (Voki, blogs, clickers, serious gaming, Webquests and digital story telling to name a few!) offers various approaches to best fit the learning needs of the student nurses. Integrating technology into the classroom allows educators to promote active, authentic, applied and experiential learning experiences. 

As a nurse educator of the 21st century, it is vital to use technology to promote active learning in my class. This will engage my students in learning and prepare them for clinical practice. A variety of technology-supported assignments will be used to meet the diverse learning styles of my students. I am especially interested in accessing electronic repositories for Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs). RLOs are learning activities available in digital format that can be used and reused with nursing students to achieve learning outcomes. They are developed by content experts, peer reviewed, and made available for educators to use in their own courses. RLOs are easy to locate and use to assist learning. They save educators from “reinventing the wheel,” and can add variety to lesson plans and course activities. RLOs can also be used as tutorials for content that is difficult to learn; as simulations to give users an opportunity to apply information to a clinical problem and make decisions about patient care; and as games that allow users to practice learned material. 

 

As a student, I have enjoyed the use of wikis and plan to implement this technology tool in my teaching strategy. A wiki is a collaborative website allowing users to edit and contribute information in an asynchronous environment. The use of a wiki allows group work to continue beyond the classroom, promoting student engagement and a sense of community. A wiki might be used as a collaborative space for scheduling meetings with students, sign-ups for presentations, interactive study guides, and posting of additional course resources (e.g. videos, links to documents/media, etc.). It can also be a platform for reflective writing and dialogue, for clinical preparation (creating a care plan, or debriefing after a simulation), and for presenting an evidence-based approach to a nursing problem. 

Technology resources for nurse educators...Oh the possibilities! Which interactive teaching strategies would you like to use?

Nursing Education in the Technology Age - Will Teachers Become Obsolete?

 “The students of tomorrow need to be able to think creatively: they will need to learn on their own, adapt to new challenges and innovate on-the-fly." - Anthony Chivetta

We are witnessing a transformation of nursing education in the 21^st century! This is an exciting, transitional period in nursing education where the use of technology is supporting a student centric, active learning environment. Technology is a tool that can assist inquiry-based learning and help students handle the huge amount of information that is available for nursing care. In this new environment, the teacher guides and facilitates learning as students actively build their own knowledge. This approach helps students develop skills in critical thinking, clinical reasoning and clinical judgment that are crucial for 21^st century nursing practice.

As my understanding develops about the importance of technology in nursing education, I have been wondering if it would eventually replace the teacher? I couldn’t shake the nagging thought that somehow educators would eventually become “obsolete”! I found an excellent article by Bellack & Thibault (2016) that discusses the value and implementation of educational technology in nursing education and nursing practice. Two important recommendations emerged from this article: 1. Technology should be viewed as a resource for the teaching-learning process. 2. Technology cannot replace faculty but instead, should be valued as a resource that gives teachers and learners more time to engage with each other to achieve successful learning. There’s the answer to my concern! Teachers can do what technology can never do: care about students and find new ways to inspire them.

 

I envision my nursing classroom as an interactive, student-centered environment where teaching/learning strategies include the use of technology to give students the skills needed for nursing in the 21^st century. I would enjoy including simulation experiences, virtual clinical practicums, e-portfolios, short video clips and many other resources to provide an engaging learning experience. Most of all, I will strive to be a source of hope, guidance and caring for my students - things that technology can never replace!