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.