Advanced Teaching Practices In Nursing Education
Important Methods in Nursing Education New Pedagogy
Pedagogy is a term used in nursing education that means the processes of teaching and learning. In the 1980s, nursing education experienced what was known as the curriculum revolution. It began when the National League for Nursing called for nursing schools to examine what students learn and how they learn (Tanner, 2007). In other words, teachers were urged to critically assess the pedagogies they were using and to use new pedagogies to better prepare students for nursing practice.
This
movement, along with educational research providing evidence for best teaching
practices, has led teachers to avoid passive learning strategies (eg,
lectures). For instance, problem-based learning, cooperative learning, and
service learning promote student centered, active learning. Nursing students
today can expect to be much more engaged and involved in the teaching and
learning process as compared to nursing students of the past.
Critical Thinking In Nursing Pedagogy
A significant movement that accompanied the curriculum revolution involved using pedagogies to ensure students could think critically in clinical practice. Critical thinking is variously defined, but put simply, it is the ability of nursing students to make sound clinical judgments and to provide safe patient care. Traditionally, students who learned the nursing process were thought to be learning critical thinking.
During the past few decades the nursing process has been challenged as the best approach to developing students' critical thinking. It is still the case that the nursing process does assist students in thinking through assessment of patients' health status, devising nursing diagnoses, planning care, deciding on nursing interventions to support that care, and evaluating patients' responses to care.
However, current research in nursing education suggests that students also need
to engage in thinking processes that promote reflective thinking, where they
build practical knowledge (knowledge from experience); embodied thinking, where
they learn the importance of intuition; and pluralistic thinking, where they
consider a clinical situation using many perspectives (Scheckel & Ironside,
2006). Today's nursing student can expect learning experiences where teachers
use the nursing process, but also use other strategies to develop students'
critical thinking practices.
Distance Education In Nursing
With the advent of new learning technologies there has been tremendous growth in distance education. Distance education is instruction students receive in a location other than that of the faculty providing the instruction (Clark & Ramsey , 2005 ). Nursing students today can expect that many of the degree options previously covered in this chapter will be offered in distance education formats.
For example, some
students may choose a distance education format to obtain a master's or
doctoral degree. There are even distance education programs for undergraduate
education. What is important to understand is how a distance education program
will serve the learning needs of the nursing student and whether enrollment in
a distance education program is the best choice for the individual student.
Simulation Use In Nursing Education
Simulation is a clinical situation that allows student nurses to function in an environment that is as close as possible to a real-life situation (Scheckel, 2008). It traditionally includes the use of live actors, written scenarios, games, virtual reality, and simple mannequins (Bearnson & Wiker, 2005). Teachers use these forms of simulation to foster critical thinking, an understanding of patients' values and needs, decision making, and hands on skills.
In recent years simulation has become more sophisticated, through the use of high fidelity human patient simulators (HPSs). HPSs are computerized mannequins that include pre-programmed but modifiable patient scenarios, allowing a teacher to direct the simulator's actions so the simulator reacts in real time in response to actions taken by the student nurse (McCartney, 2005).
For example, a teacher can program a
simulator so that the student uses both critical thinking and psychomotor
skills to provide care in an emerging complex patient situation such as an
acute myocardial infarction. One significant advantage to the use of HPSs is
that it allows students to experience clinical scenarios that they may not get
exposed to in real clinical settings. There is emerging research supporting the
effectiveness of HPSs in nursing education.
The Future of Nursing Education
In 1998 the Pew Health Professions Commission, a group of healthcare leaders charged with assisting health policy makers and educators teaching health professionals to meet the changing needs of healthcare systems, completed a report listing competencies healthcare providers of the future would need. The competencies listed in this Fourth Report of the Pew Health Professions Commission (O'Neal & Pew Health Professions Commission, 1998) included many of the issues discussed in this chapter.
For example, the list included the need for healthcare professionals to be competent in evidence-based practice and critical thinking and to take responsibility for patient outcomes. Now 10 years later it is important to reflect on how the commission's projections were so accurate. How will nursing education need to prepare nurses in these competencies and future competencies as changes in the healthcare needs of society occur?
Reflecting current
initiatives in professional education, Contemporary Practice Highlight 2-4
addresses the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's Preparation
for the Professions Program, a multiyear, multidisciplinary study that is
investigating learning and effective teaching for nursing and other
professions. The results of this study will undoubtedly influence future trends
in nursing education.
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