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.