Redesigning Clinical Skill Training through Technology
Academic Year:
2009 - 2010 (June 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010)
Funding Requested:
$9,934.00
Project Dates:
-
Overview of the Project:
Project Summary: The purpose of this project is to restructure and redesign clinical laboratory teaching and learning activities for the sophomore year in the School of Nursing baccalaureate program using eLearning technologies. Goals are to increase student access to skill learning activities to improve proficiency, increase quality and safety of student clinical performance, establish consistency in teaching skills, reduce costs by reducing the number of faculty necessary for clinical skills training, promote integration of knowledge and skill learning from an evidence-based perspective, and improve student and faculty satisfaction with clinical skill training. School of Nursing faculty, Clinical Learning Center and information technology staff will review, evaluate, select, and develop educational technology that will restructure lab clinical skill teaching and learning in the sophomore year. Appropriate products will be purchased from vendors and some tools such as additional modules will be developed with an expert in instructional design. An educational program for faculty will be planned and implemented in consultation with an expert in teaching methods using new technologies. Students will have unlimited opportunities to review and learn skill development through eLearning systems, develop more proficiency in clinical skill performance prior to hospital placements, and become more responsible and accountable for their learning through self-directed experiences. The School of Nursing will benefit from reduced faculty costs, and improved utilization of hospital clinical placements with students better prepared to care safely for patients. [Project Duration]: Planning for the project implementation began in April of 2009. The revisions to the undergraduate courses N254 and N221 began in September of 2009 for N254 and mid-August 2009 for N221. The revisions that were rolled out were the complete redesign of the skills lab portion of each of those courses. The revisions to N256 rolled out in January 2010. All faculty and instructors associated with the skills lab were trained in the new format in August of 2009. [Overview of the Project]: In the first term, sophomore students enroll in two lab based courses, Assessment of Health and Illness and Health Maintenance I. In these beginning nursing courses, students learn basic skills necessary to assess the health status of individuals from infancy through old age. Emphasis is on the assessment of physical, developmental, psychosocial, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the clients. Students learn to distinguish normal from abnormal and judge the functional abilities of the client. Key objectives address mastery of basic nursing skills necessary to provide proficient evidence-based nursing care. The following term, students enroll in Health Assessment II and Health Maintenance II. In these courses, students expand their assessment and skill repertoire, integrating content from other courses such as pharmacology and pathophysiology. Usually 14-16 students are assigned to a course section with one clinical lab instructor per section. Each instructor teaches skills through demonstration and supervision of students in their section. This results in inconsistency in teaching and evaluation of skill mastery and limits opportunities for students to practice those skills. In addition, multiple faculty are required to supervise the lab sections. Additionally, the teaching strategies have focused on traditional methods to deliver content. Our students come from a diverse background and our teaching methods need to embrace more learner-centered approaches and more multi-contextual learning environments (Giddens, 2007). [Phase One]: We reviewed, evaluated, selected and developed appropriate educational technology that will allowed us to restructure the sophomore lab learning experiences for two courses, Health Maintenance I and Health Maintenance II. These courses focus on fundamental skill development such as vital signs, medication administration, tube care, and catheterizations. By redesigning teaching and learning methods to incorporate new technologies, students: • have access to unlimited opportunities to review explanations and demonstrations through eLearning activities to better prepare them for skills practice and evaluation • learn skills from uniform content and performance expectations, and consistent teaching approaches • become more proficient in clinical skill performance prior to hospital placements, thus promoting patient safety and maximizing hospital clinical experiences • become more responsible and accountable for their learning through self-directed learning experiences • demonstrate greater satisfaction and enthusiasm for their learning. The School of Nursing has benefited from reduced instructional costs, improved utilization of hospital clinical placements, and improvement in student and faculty satisfaction.