A Letter to my Future Nursing Students & Practicing Nurses

Dear students/ Practicing nurses,
        Before exploring the endless possibilities of technology in education I was familiar with traditional lecture-based teaching. This style of teaching was used in almost all of my education through my associates program for nursing. As I advanced my education toward my Bachelors in Nursing I started to see some changes in education. Short videos, class discussion,  and online discussion boards started to become a normal process as I worked toward my degree. As I have progressed from the traditional lecture-based style of teaching to an innovative and interactive style of teaching in my Master's program I have seen many benefits. It is evident that the effectiveness of implementing different technological teaching methods will help you to be more involved in your learning process and help you critically think. This can be accomplished by group activities, digital storytelling, using clickers, participate in simulation, incorporate short videos into lecture, start critical thinking exercises, utilize Moovly, and other videos to help student to see how things work. This educational experience allows me to be creative and offer more learning opportunities to help you succeed as a nurse to deliver safe patient care. I am excited for this journey that we will take together and I am willing to invest the time and creativity it takes to help you understand many challenging concepts.

        I have learned the importance of focusing on the delivery of content, and how to effectively transform new concepts and apply them practice. Education is an experience and through different avenues we build on previous knowledge to gain a better understanding in how to manage the complex aging population. In order to deal with these complex patient problems it is important to participate in different activities to stimulate your though process and promote new ways of thinking. Completing each class in my Masters Program through Roberts Wesleyan College I have learned a lot and will continue to learn different methods to help transform you into  a strong clinical nurse. I am excited about the endless opportunities of technology and will continue to strive to learn something new to help you in understanding different patient problems.

Sincerely,
Melanie Harvey

One of the strongest and most far-reaching current trends in health care is the application of evidence-based practice through the development of research and information technology/informatics. This trend is visible across all sectors of nursing, including practice, education, research, and administration. The rationale behind this trend is to improve client care by selecting best practice options grounded in viable research, and to expand the theoretical foundations of all health professions

-June Kaminski 

 

My Nursing Informatics

Since the beginning of the profession, nurses have applied their ingenuity, resourcefulness, and professional awareness of what works to adapt technology and objects to support nursing care, usually with the intent to promote efficiency but also client comfort and healing.

-June Kaminski

As I prepare myself to teach nurses and student nurses it is my obligation to develop my own knowledge, skills, and attitudes concerning healthcare informatics and its’ relation to patient safety and quality of care. It is important for educators to prepare themselves with the ever-changing technology within the healthcare system. By doing this educators will be more prepared to help their students. In taking the nursing informatics self-assessment test I learned that I am comfortable with technology and am more toward the innovator level. I am willing to use technology to help teach students and I am not afraid of trying something new even if it takes extra time to learn a new skill. Overall, the importance of technology in nursing is the endless resources that students can utilize when presenting work or the complex medical charting system that will help students gain an overall picture of their health. The goal of technology especially within medical records is to see a multidisciplinary approach that all healthcare providers view to see theirs patient’s progress.

The largest component of information technology is improving our overall goal for patient safety. Many resources are available to help healthcare providers to manage their patients; therefore it is important to teach nurses how to use these many resources. For example hospitals access different guides to help nurses understand different medications, compatibility and medication management. Encouraging nurses to use these resources help reduce error and promote safety before administering multiple medications. Despite the negativity on the occasional computer crashing, these resources are always available and since most documentation if completed online, nurses have many different tools readily available. June Kaminsky is a great author who talks about nursing informatics and how it affects overall, nursing care. I like how she discusses how nursing has not changed, bt our tools have advanced to improve patient outcomes. We must be positive about these changes and become experts in new technology in order to improve the outcomes of our students and  the care they deliver.

Feed Forward and Authentic Assessment

We must give more attention to the interplay between the science of teaching – pedagogy – and the art of teaching… A teacher must be anchored in pedagogy and blend imagination, creativity and inspiration into the teaching learning process to ignite a passion for learning in student. 

– Peyton Williams

        As an educator, it is important to invest meaningful, constructive feedback to students. Two standard methods of feedback used are feed forward and authentic assessment. The main idea of feed forward is for the educator to give students the steps to take to improve their work. This type of feedback helps the student to refrain from dwelling on their past mistakes but moving forward in how to make changes for the future. Another form used in teaching is an authentic assessment. Authentic assessment is used to help students apply real life situation into their learning. For example debriefing helps students correlate their content they learned in class and assess how they can apply it in to real-life situations. After the scenario, students debrief and review what they did well and what they could have done better.

        It is common for educators to recognize the student’s mistakes and providing feedback on what was wrong, without helping the student move forward. This type of feedback is negatively identified by the student and is not as efficient as an authentic assessment approach by faculty. In my career as an educator, I plan to give students timely feedback that will help them to learn what is needed to provide the best understanding of a topic. It is important to give students time to meet with their instructor to discuss any further clarification and needs to promote critical thinking skills and understand how they can move forward and prevent the same mistakes. It is important to provide an authentic assessment into teaching and the feedback given to students. This approach will help students to think critically and understand how to apply the content they learned. The feedforward and authentic assessment are more time consuming for the educator, but these forms of assessment are needed to help students grow and strengthen their thinking and hands-on skills as they prepare for the nursing field.

Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration With Technology

Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.

-Mattie Stepanek

        In order to maintain patient safety it is vital that communication between all healthcare professionals is seamless. Positive interdisciplinary communication is does not only improve patient outcomes, but it improves the satisfaction of healthcare workers, patients, and their families. Helping to improve this collaboration between different professionals, gains an appreciation and respect for everyone as they work together toward the same patient goal. Many different teaching hospitals have created lecture based education sessions, nursing grad rounds, and committees with different professionals who work together to improve patient outcomes and educate one another. Many technologies can be used to help professionals work together to build a positive working environment. For example, high fidelity simulation experiences have become more prevalent and simulation scenarios are being practiced will all healthcare providers in a group. If institutions had the ability to utilize these education sessions using a interdisciplinary approach,communication and collaboration would become more familiar and overall care for the patient would improve.

        These simulated experiences mimic real-life scenarios and are practiced within the healthcare provider’s regular working environment. These experiences help doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, coordinators, residents, and pharmacists to communicate in stressful situations and learn how to work together to improve patient outcomes. Within these practice scenarios, all healthcare professionals can learn to problem solve and work together to achieve seamless quality care. It is very important for all team members to follow these learning sessions with a groups debriefing in order to address issues and discuss what can be done in the future to improve care. Debriefing sessions a facilitator should set an atmosphere that is supportive and positive. This helps the learner to be open within the discussion and feel safe when expressing any concerns. The importance of utilizing a multidisciplinary learning environment is vital, and as technology advances it is important to give healthcare workers the opportunity to grow and learn together to improve patient outcomes.

Active Learning

The world we have created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

-Albert Einstein

        Throughout history the delivery of content and techniques used in teaching has shifted to mirror the increasing complex patient problems and technology used in medicine. The shift toward student-centered learning continues to be the main focus. Many different technological opportunities are available in order to build activities to help students grow and develop critical thinking skills. These teaching techniques foster different ways of thinking through multiple approached. Some teaching methods used are web-based teaching, simulation, video, gaming, discussion and clickers, and WIKI’s. It is important for educators to understand the importance of authentic student-centered learning and the importance of frequently giving students to opportunity to reflect on their learning. In nursing the experiential learning theory is popular. This learning theory explains how learning is a continual process and knowledge is created through experience. Students have the opportunity to build on each experience transforming their thinking and advanceing their cognition.


         Nursing education is ever-changing and through the advancement in technology we have seen that traditional lecture based education is outdated for nursing students. The teaching approach I will use will reflect an active learning style through innovative techniques. Students will have the opportunity to review material and lectures prior to class so they are prepared to apply the knowledge they have gained through different active hands on learning experiences. This innovative teaching techniques will prepare nurses to critically think and apply the material they learn and incorporate it through real-life scenarios. Students will also partake in group learning activities to help them build a foundation of collaboration and positive communication techniques that they will need to build as they prepare for their career.

21st Century Age of Technology

      "The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art".

– John Lasseter

        Healthcare information technology has significantly advanced over the past 10 years. Today tools are utilized to improve the care and documentation that is delivered for each patient. These changes have not only promoted change in the clinical setting, but have moved into the classroom setting. Students will learn to adapt to the advances in technology and learn how to incorporate methods used in class on clinical. It is important to understand the balance between patient care and technology. As am emerging nurse educator I plan to be positive and motivate my students as I help to facilitate education technology and how it applies in the clinical and classroom setting. Nurses will understand that the electronic health record is one of the biggest changes in documenting patient care. Information technologists work to capture different elements in the patient care delivered. Nurses are becoming more involved in IT  and continue to focus on patient centered care. The 21st century students are used to finding information fast, therefore it is important to develop new resources for nurses to utilize when delivering patient care.

        I envision nursing students to participate in simulated scenarios that reflect real-life situations.  As an educator it is important to help students reflect on their performance and the things they learned. Reflection helps teachers to understand the students thinking process and gives students the opportunity to veiw how they may change their performance in the future. Reflection activites can be shared through online discussion boards. These online learning tools provide time and encourage each student to participate in discussion and respond to their peers. As the 21st century student centered learning environment incorporates innovative teaching techniques, I believe the changes in technology will continue to influence students in a positive way. If these changes are supported by faculty, then students will should be supported as they learn how technology can impact their care in a positive way.