NR536 All Weeks Discussions Latest 2020 JULY

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 Education Theory and Learners

Select the type of learner you will work with in the future (i.e., academic students, staff nurses, or patients/families); then debate the following question. Be sure to include pros and cons.

Many individuals state that "practice is the best teacher." For these individuals, the application of the same knowledge and the same skill must occur repeatedly and often. In contrast, there are educators who state that a learner does not need to complete 10 bed baths or write 15 care plans. In their opinions, quality is more important than quantity.

Question: Applying your knowledge of educational theory from previous courses, which approach would be best for your learners—repeated practice or quality? How can learner confidence be developed with the method that you selected?

Please see the discussion guidelines and grading rubric by clicking on the link below.

Discussion Guidelines and Grading Rubric

DQ2 Collaboration Café

The clinical environment as part of experiential learning is of major importance to the educator. Select your type of learner (i.e., undergraduate nursing student, new graduate in a mentoring program, a family learning how to provide gastric feedings for a child) and discuss the clinical site.

Topic: This discussion focuses on what makes a good clinical site for the selected learner you will be working with as a nurse educator in the future.

Please see the guidelines and grading rubric below.

Collaboration Café Guidelines and Grading Rubric

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1 Skills to Help Learners Develop

The following skills have been identified as areas that a nurse educator should help learners develop so they can develop clinical decision-making skills.

Motivation to learn

Attention to details

Seeking aptitude to clarify information with questions

Awareness of knowledge gaps

Appraisal of the decision and its outcome

Select ONE of the above areas and identify specific actions that a nurse educator can implement in order to assist a learner to acquire the selected skill.

DQ2 Collaboration Café

When you were a new graduate, how comfortable were you with clinical decision making? Were there techniques used by instructors to help you learn decision making? Did you learn it "on the job"? Focus on the techniques so that the discussion will focus on "how" to help learners think critically and make appropriate clinical decisions.

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 Experimental Learning Environments

This is the second day of an experiential learning event. While you have eight students, one of them has caught your attention. The learner seems to be non-verbally engaged by nodding in agreement to other learners' statements/answers and has good eye contact, but yet does not answer any question. Yesterday, you asked this student a question, but after a few seconds of silence, another student answered the question. You could almost see the disappointment on the first student's face.

Today is a different day. What educational methods would you suggest in order to encourage this student to respond to questions?

DQ2 Collaboration Café

The development of Socratic questions can be a challenge for a nurse educator. Is there something that makes Socratic questioning more difficult than just asking a "normal" or "usual" question? How can a nurse educator develop a habit regarding Socratic questioning?

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 Teaching Methods

As a nurse educator, you are very concerned that learners understand the importance of working with individuals in a holistic manner. You are currently being challenged, however, by three learners (select if academic setting or professional staff development) who consistently overlook the psychosocial elements of nursing care.

Identify a teaching method that would be useful in helping these learners to assimilate the importance of mood and/or cognition while providing nursing care.

DQ2 Collaboration Café

As an educator, you need to be knowledgeable regarding all aspects of professional nursing—from leadership to evidence-based practice, to psychomotor skills, to mental health concepts. For this discussion, let's say that you are not currently comfortable with teaching and role modeling some element of professional nursing. Other than taking a class, how can you, the nurse educator, develop competence in an area that you need to teach but are not currently comfortable with?

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 5 Discussion

Collaboration Café

With any topic in nursing education, it is important to understand both the pros and cons for any topic in nursing education. This week, our conversation focuses on the rebuttal of several commonly occurring cons of the use of serious gaming and virtual reality within any type of nursing educational setting (i.e., academic, professional development, or patient education).

Select one of the following cons and provide a professional rebuttal.

Con 1: Gaming/virtual reality decreases the attention span of learners.

Con 2: Learning isn't a game, especially when someone's life may depend on knowledge and skill.

Con 3: Gaming/virtual reality decreases the reading skills of learners so retention of knowledge is lessened.

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 6 Discussion

DQ1 Learning Activities in the Skills Laboratory

A novice nurse educator is assigned to develop and implement learning activities in the skills laboratory. She expresses her disappointment to her mentor because she was looking forward to presenting in the classroom. The novice educator comments, "What can happen in the skills lab except making beds?"

As the mentor to this novice nurse educator, how would you respond? Can learning occur in the skills laboratory? What actions can an educator take to foster the transfer of learning from a laboratory with mannequins to "real-life" direct patient care?

DQ2 Collaboration Café

While studies have shown that simulation with high-fidelity mannequins can replace clinical experience, resistance to this is still present. Consider your future practice setting—staff development versus academic—how can you use simulation to foster clinical decision making in your learners? What type of scenario would you build?

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 7 Discussion

Collaboration Café

Within a physical classroom, different teaching methods can be used to foster interaction and learning:

Classroom lecture

Classroom discussion

Classroom debate

Small group activities and projects

Tests/exams

For this week, consider this: How can these methods be used or modified for the eLearning environment?

NR536 Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Pharmacology for Nurse Educators

Week 8 Discussion

Collaboration Café

As an educator, you have been approached by the manager to assist with the moving of the unit currently on Floor 6 to Floor 4. This move is going to occur during the day and time that you and your learners are scheduled. The manager would appreciate your participation because with you and your learners, there will be sufficient assistance without having to pay significant overtime. While the learners will be moving the patients in their beds, they also will be moving equipment, bedside tables, infusion pumps, etc. to the other floor as well.

Although you, the educator, would like to help, several questions occur in your mind. These include the following.

Although you want to help, what would be the learning activity objectives?

What would the students learn from participating in the move?

How would it be consistent with course outcomes?

Is it ethical to require students to help?

Should the faculty member schedule a simulation activity to avoid the situation?

If you don't help with the move, how will the staff react and respond to future students?

Please debate the pros and cons in providing assistance to the floor during the move as a learning activity.