Development of Student Nurse-Driven Tools to Assess Learning Needs and Clinical Learning Environments in Order to Establish Guiding Principles for Maintaining High Quality Clinical Education

This class was very challenging, interesting, and informative. First, students must push themselves to expand their knowledge and help themselves become more inquisitive, critical, reflective, and problem solve. As future professional nurse practitioner, we are striving for integrating clinical judgment skills. The knowledge gained in the textbook must be applied in the clinical settings without discrimination.

My chosen practicum will be teaching in the skills/simulation lab at NCMC. This paper will outline how the experience will enhance my knowledge and develop skills necessary to fulfill the role of nurse educator. The goals, objectives, and timeline will be discussed in this paper. The project that will be developed during the practicum experience will be a debriefing philosophy and evaluation tool to assess student learning with emphasis on critical thinking skills.

The Kaplan website offers a wealth of information and helpful tools for nursing students. The videos in the "How to Study" section offer practical advice for beginning nursing students and those who might be struggling with topics such as, Taking Notes, Studying, Reading Textbooks, Time Management, and Preparing for the Exam. The "Remediation by Topic" section offers students summaries of topics like Confidentiality, Critical Thinking Skills, and HIPAA. "The Focused Review Test" section offers an option to create a test to use as a study aid. This paper will give a summary of the topics, Critical Thinking Skills, the NCLEX-RN, and Therapeutic Communication. This paper will also discuss which methods are the

Issues such as staff shortage, increased workload, staff feeling threatened by the student nurses, and poor teaching skills can contribute to students not feeling supported (Burns and Paterson, 2005). Nursing students had identified that anxiety as their main concern in the research done by Masoumi and Sharif (2005). The unfamiliarity of tending for patients and worrying of making mistakes during the clinical attachment are the factors that students feel anxious. Mentor can diminish anxiety by utilizing simulation, where genuine case studies and scenarios are being simulated and roles and responsibilities of student nurse are being discussed (Burns and Paterson, 2005).Gradual encouragement in helping student nurse to gain control over their own learning may aid to construct their confidence which will reduce their

Elisha (2008) discussed evidence suggested, programs that focused on clinical educators had a positive effect not only with the teachers but also improved the learning environment for students. The school providing opportunities for professional development in curriculum design allows for novice learners to advance their skills (Iwasiw and Goldenberg, 2015). Changes require faculty to expand their views, taking into consideration the future of nursing practice, goals, and how students can be successful in achieving these goals (Iwasiw and Goldenberg, 2015). National League of Nursing (2016) notes that educators have to commit to maintain competency in their educator role with the competency of pursuing continuous quality improvement in the nurse educator role. Educators have to be willing to push themselves to develop the skills for curriculum design and evaluation to continue to provide effective education to nursing students. Success of curriculum development is dependent upon knowledgeable faculty willingness to participate and professional development planned with and for the faculty (Iwasiw and Goldenberg, 2015). Educators will also need to develop skills for evaluation of student learning and part of the curriculum development. Evaluation of student learning is key to determine if the current curriculum allows for students to achieve set goals for the course and evaluation methods used match course objectives (Iwasiw and Goldenberg, 2015). Evaluation helps to understand what works and what areas need improvement to ensure student

The beginning of a new graduate nurses career rarely begins easily, there seems to be a distinct disconnect between the fantasy of what it means to be a nurse and the reality of bedside nursing. Nursing school seems to feed into this disconnection, in that it does not prepare the new graduate registered nurse (NGRN) for their professional practice. What nursing school does is give the NGRN the basics, a peak into what is to come. The NGRN has to find out for themselves what the true meaning of being a nurse is and if it fits their preconceived ideas.

My practicum setting will be an associate degree nursing program, Joliet Junior College (JJC), one of the oldest community colleges in Illinois. The mission of the school is focused on offering students an affordable, accessible valued education for a lifelong profession in nursing, and to serve the community (Joliet Junior College [JJC], n. d.). Accordingly, the school’s philosophy is based on preparing students to be exceptional providers in the growing healthcare system, providing safe and high quality care (JJC, n. d.). The foundation of the JJC nursing program is based on four major principles: client, environment, health and nursing (JJC, n.d), while their conceptual framework is grounded in the fundamental structure of three major theories which forms the basis of the concepts, skills, and principles of the nursing practice (JJC, n. d.). The three major theories are: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Levels of Prevention and the Nursing Process (JJC, n.d.). Joliet Junior College nursing school offers a competitive program and combines the traditional classroom experiences, in-class high-fidelity simulations labs, online augmentation theory lectures, and clinical experiences in health facilities throughout the community (Joliet Junior College [JJC], 2016).

Proceeding each offering of courses, evaluation occurs and is shared with faculty course members and the Director of the School of Nursing. The evaluation is utilized to improve the teaching and learning strategies to enhance achievement of learning outcomes for subsequent semesters. The curriculum committee’s responsibility is to review the nursing courses for rigor, currency, and integrity and present new recommendations to faculty based on this review. Faculty will consider current changes by a majority vote.

The College regulates the nursing practice through the quality assurance program which has two parts: self assessment and practice assessment. The purpose of self assessment is to identify learning needs and develop a learning plan using ‘SMART’ goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable and Time bound) to meet those learning needs. Through the practice assessment, CNO regulates the nursing practice by selecting few nurses to participate in the assessment every year.

The NMBA has set several specific requirements in place that outline professional development and evolving prerequisites for nurses. Some of the fundamental components include nurses “participating in at least 20 hours of continuing nursing professional development” – which may incorporate participation in mandatory skills acquisition – per year and keeping written documentation of it for verification, (NMBA, 2016). This continuation of professional education and development, as well as documenting it concisely, is critical in the assessment process of a successful nurse in the field of contemporary healthcare.

Teaching and learning in the clinical setting is not a new concept and the teaching of clinical skill to nursing student ranks high on the current agenda of nurse education (Pfeil, 2003). Therefore, has be the duty of teachers to continue to provide ongoing guidance during teaching and learning taking place. According to While (2004), the mentor is required to feel personally and professionally confident when assessing the student’s performance. This allows the development of the students will become better and more effective.

The NLN CNEA’s fourth standard is stated as “Culture of excellence and caring – students” (p. 5). This is outlined as a student centered learning environment that embraces diversity with support. (p.5). This may be evaluated by attrition rates, student centered learning activities, counseling services available to students, and a wiliness of faculty to encourage student success. This criteria would incorporate not only the nursing faculty but for success it would have to incorporate the entire institution.

In this paper, I will be discussing my learning experiences during term three. In order to classify and expand on what I have learned, I will be writing about two roles I have assumed as a student nurse, how I have developed those roles through theory and practice, how my thinking has changed, and what I would like to change in the future.

With the continuous changes in healthcare, evaluation of students’ clinical knowledge and skills relies on the need for continuous evaluation. Evaluation is the process of using data to make judgements about students’ individual performance. Evaluation of clinical performance provides data from which educators use to judge the extent to which students have acquired specific learning outcomes (Billings & Halstead, 2016). With the use of best practice evaluation methods, clinical performance can be evaluated to ensure quality patient care. Educators face a challenging task when providing evaluation that is fair and reasonable. Tasked with evaluating students in the clinical setting, educators can evaluate how students integrate theory and apply it to real-life situations. Observations of performance in the clinical setting should focus on the outcomes to be met and competencies to be developed (Oermann & Gaberson, 2014). Developing a clinical evaluation tool to determine whether students can think critically, prioritize problems, and complete patient care procedures correctly is essential. There are a variety of evaluation methods to use in nursing education. Depending on the learning outcomes to be measured will determine which tool best evaluates the students’ performance. Clinical practice is an essential and highly significant component of nursing education. Education programs are obligated to respond to government requests for well-educated healthcare professionals.

This paper is concerned about conducting an analysis of a study titled “Nursing students ' conception of clinical skills training before and after their first clinical placement: A quantitative, evaluative study” by Struksnes and Engelien (2016). The study aims to compare the nursing students’ experiences in a skills training institution immediately after their training and ten weeks after placement in a clinical environment like nursing homes. This study is also significant in that it seeks to measure attitude as well as behavior change in student nurses’ perceptions about different clinical skills training they experience during their placement. The students conceive the clinical skills in different ways, and a well outlined study should be carried out to examine how these conceptions impact on their performance before and after their clinical placements.