UIC RN-BSN Program
Instructor Guide
NUSC 242 Concepts and Processes for Contemporary
Nursing Practice
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Instructor Guide
I. Welcome
Welcome to 242 Concepts and Processes for Contemporary Nursing! This 4 credit course will
introduce the RN/BSN students to contemporary concepts for professional nursing and practice
in health care systems with emphasis on the nursing paradigm, cultural competency, health
promotion and continuity of care. Students will spend approximately 27 hours a week on
assignments and reading materials. However, time commitment will vary depending on their
inputs, needs and personal study habits. Students are required to log on a minimum of 7 times
a week but may find that as discussions and assignments progress, more log in time may be
needed.
II. Overview
1. Course Overview
Throughout this course, students will work with a small team of fellow classmates and play the
role of National Student Nurse Association (NSNA) members. The NSNA is a national
organization whose members are students of nursing in both Baccalaureate Degree programs
and Associate Degree programs. With a membership of over 45,000 nationwide, the National
Student Nurses' Association mentors the professional development of future nurses and
facilitates their entrance into the profession by providing educational resources, leadership
opportunities, and career guidance. In an effort to achieve their mission, the Organization’s
website offers programmed electronic activities and presentations on a number of topics all of
which enhance the knowledge of and about the discipline of nursing.
The Board of Directors of the NSNA is hypothetically looking for an exemplary presentation to
give nursing students and beginning nurses answering the question, “What is Nursing?”
In their hypothetical role as members of the NSNA, the students will, for their culminating
activity, be required to create a final presentation for the NSNA Board and members that best
represents an answer to the overarching question, What is Nursing?.
The course consists of seven modules based on the Challenge Cycle concept. Each module will
last one week. Each of the modules will present a new challenge for the NSNA teams that will
help deepen and extend the students’ knowledge for their final presentation. The eight
components (slides) of the Challenge Cycle method are the same for each module and are
described below in the order in which they appear for each module.
SLIDE 1: MODULE OVERVIEW
Students are presented with an overview of what they will learn in the module.
SLIDE 2: CHALLENGE
Students will be presented with a new challenge question, which is also the theme of the
module.
SLIDE 3: GENERATE IDEAS
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Students will be prompted individually to generate their initial ideas and thoughts regarding the
challenge topic and to record those thoughts in their online journal. They will also be prompted
to participate with their team members in a conversation on the discussion board responding to
initial questions regarding the challenge. Please note: this assignment should be completed
before the students read and study any of the course materials. We are trying to get a sense
of their thoughts on the topic prior to content consumption.
As this is the student’s personal opinion and viewpoint, you will not grade content but rather
participation. The student must do the activities and will be graded on quality of participation,
including thoughtfulness, length, and writing style.
SLIDES 4: RESOURCES & PERSPECTIVES.
Slide 4 is two pages long. On the first page, students will be presented with a variety of
resources to help their team meet the specific assignments that are associated with the
challenge. Each module, through a video, gives the students a professional’s perspective to
consider as they work through the other resources on the challenge topic. Please note: the
professional’s perspective focuses on information the students have read and gives both
clarifying information and stimulating discussion points. The perspectives contain important
content; they are not merely the random ideas of individuals.
In addition, there is supporting material that goes with the video. This material is interactive and
is presented in Flash.
On the second page, the students will find links to required readings, web-based resources and
an online Nursing Consultant. The Flash-based online Nursing Consultant poses the most
frequently asked questions to get students thinking and to provide them with answers in order
to help scaffold information and knowledge.
The Video Perspective, Flash Materials, and Nurse Consultant are the means by which the
course faculty designer has incorporated explanatory and interpretive lecture materials on to
the course site. You should encourage students to pay close attention to these resources and
review them as often as necessary.
SLIDE 5: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Students are presented with individual and team assignments designed to engage the students
in problem solving the weekly challenge.
In the Individual Tasks, the student performs a series of exploratory tasks that deepens her/his
understanding of the underlying issues presented in the specific module’s challenge. These are
graded each week.
Please note: Because these assignments often produce information necessary for the team to
move forward, the individual students are required to submit their assignments to the team
discussion board. As an instructor, you might want to ask them to submit it to you as a
document also. For some instructors, the document offers an opportunity for individual
grading of content, style, and grammar, which is not so easy to do on the discussion board.
SLIDE 6: TEAM ASSIGNMENT
The Team Task requires that a designated team leader take the lead in organizing the team to
complete the assigned activity. Team Leader expectations are described in more detail in the
group and rubric sections. Only the person(s) who is the team leader will earn the points
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assigned to the team leader task for that week. Thus, you will grade the team leader each week,
and for the rest of the team members you will only grade their participation in the discussion
that gets the team’s work done.
SLIDE 7: REVIEW & REFLECT
After students complete their individual and team assignments for the week, they will be
required to reflect on what they have learned by responding to specific reflection questions. The
students record their responses in their online journal. As this is a reflection of their growth in
the learning, this will be graded as their reflection journal grade. You will read and grade these
each week, making response comments and giving feedback in the student’s journal as you see
fit.
SLIDE 8: MODULE CHECKLIST
Students are presented with a checklist of the tasks and activities that they should have done in
order to complete successfully the module.
Course Information
The Course is offered March, July, and November of each year
SME: Kate Tredway
ID: Gina Anderson
Copyeditor: Fiona Griswold
History of revision process:
When the course was made: June 2007
When the course was initially offered November, 2007
First review: January 08
Revised course offered: The course was revised in Jan. 08 and revisited again in
Nov. 08
2. Pedagogical Approach
Each of the modules will present a new challenge for the students and their teams that will help
expand and broaden the students’ knowledge regarding the nursing profession. The problembased approach taken in this course is constructivist in nature. To get a general overview of
problem-based learning and constructivist learning theory you should explore these resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning

http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9812/v8n1smpl.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning theory)
The role of the instructor is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to the student by creating an
environment conducive to active and interactive participation in the learning. The student
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should have an active role in this course validating acquired knowledge via exploration and
social collaboration with others.
Group Work
Each student is assigned to a team for the duration of the course. Teams will be assigned by the
Learning Management System. You should communicate closely with Instructional Services to
make sure this has been completed prior to the first day of class.
Please Note: As of March 09, the Learning Management System has not assigned the teams;
the instructor has. On the weekend before the course starts, the instructor must view the
class list and evenly divide the class enrollment into teams. There are 7 modules in this course,
but only six of them require a team leader, therefore number of team members should be 3,
4, or 6, so that team leader assignments can be evenly distributed.
Each module has assigned team activities and thus each module will have an assigned Team
Leader who will take the lead on the Team Task for the Module. You, the instructor, will have
to assign Team Leaders randomly for each week for each team. Please note that Module 6
does not have a Team Leader activity, thus for seven modules you will need to assign six Team
Leaders. In some cases there might be two students serving as Co-Team Leaders. In cases where
you have less than six students in the class, you will need to be creative in designing teams and
assigning Team Leader assignments. The Team Leader role is worth 50 points allotted to only
that student who acted as team leader for the module. The Team Leader cannot earn more
than 50 points for the whole course, thus if any student is team leader more than once, her or
his entire Team Leader grades must total 50. There is a rubric for each Team Leader assignment
in the rubric section of this document, and posted per module on the course site.
All team members are responsible for contributing to the team task for the week. Lack of
participation will be reflected in their discussion board participation grade.
Final Culminating Activity
The final evaluation for each team will be an electronic presentation developed by the team for
the National Student Nurse Association (NSNA) Board of Directors. The presentation
hypothetically will be used by NSNA students and beginning nurses to answer for them the
question, “What is Nursing?”
Through the weekly challenges that NUSC 242 students struggled with during the course, they
will gain different perspectives into what it means to be a nurse. They should take what they
learned in the course, add to it personal and professional experience and knowledge, and
illustrate that in their final presentation. Though the presentation should reflect at least some
consideration of the topics presented in the course, it is up to each team to decide what they
want to include in their final presentation. They need not include every concept or idea
presented in the course; we do not want them simply repeating the course in their presentation.
In addition, they may even include information that contradicts course material, as long as they
give a reasonable rationale.
The team will decide how they want to divide the workload. It is the responsibility of the team
leader assigned to module seven to take the lead in organizing how this all is done. Each team
member is responsible for contributing to the presentation
The students may create their presentation in any technical program they choose as long as it
can be loaded on to the course site. Students should check with the instructor to make sure the
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presentation method they are choosing can indeed be presented on the site. Some examples
include PowerPoint presentation, Wiki, or a brochure. This should be a professional
presentation that could be given to actual students and beginning nurses. The presentations
should be 45-60 minutes long.
The team leader will post the team’s completed presentation to the Discussion Board by the
given due date. The presentations should be posted in the forum entitled Final Presentations.
Once all presentations have been posted, individual students will review each and choose the
top two that best exemplify an outstanding answer to, “What is Nursing?” They will cast their
vote using a poll and reflect individually in their journals.
3. Technology, Applications, and System Requirements
For technical support, please contact The Global Campus Help Desk by sending an e-mail to
gctechnologysupport@uillinois.edu or by calling (866) 896-3939.
4. Grading
Frequency of Feedback
Assignment feedback and grading should be completed within 48 hours of the assignment’s due
date. Feedback provided within Discussion Topics should be informative and
acknowledging. Students often feel uncertain about their performance in the unfamiliar online
environment and need prompt affirmation they are on the right track. If negative feedback is
required, it should be done offline using the private email functionality within D2L, or using the
Drop Box feedback.
The best approach to this class is your enthusiasm about your profession. Humor helps as do
pertinent examples. Think of questions/examples to draw out student responses. In addition,
as long as students remain on topic task, the discussion may not be the same each time the
course is offered. This is particularly true with the current state of health care and the dynamic
changes that occur regularly, many times depending on the headlines of the news and media.
In addition, the discussion boards may lend themselves to different examples related to the
topic. Feel free to join in the discussion and use your expertise and experience to enhance the
discussion.
For each of the first 6 modules, you will need to grade:
Generate Idea: Read and comment in individual blogs (at least one past instructor does this
early in the week). Review adequacy and amount of participation on the team discussion board
for this assignment. There are specific questions that need to be answered; you will want to
ascertain if the student has answered each question adequately. Use the rubric.
Individual Assignment: Each student must submit an individual assignment either to the
discussion board and/or drop box. Grade this per the rubric per individual.
Individual Participation in the team assignment: After each individual student submits their
individual assignment, they each must participate in the team discussion to develop the team
assignment. You should evaluate the amount and quality of each student’s participation and
grade them accordingly. Most students achieve the full 10 points for this assignment, but not
always.
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Team Leader: Each week, except week 6, one student is assigned to be the team leader. That
student must submit the team leader assignment. Grade this per the rubric for the team leader
only.
Review and Reflect: Read and comment in individual blogs. There are specific questions that
need to be answered; you will want to ascertain if the student has answered each question
adequately. Use the rubric.
For Module 7, in addition to the above weekly assignments that need to be graded, the
instructor must grade the final team presentation. Each team member receives this grade. Use
the rubric.
Quality of Feedback
Student feedback must be constructive, based on the assignment’s rubric, and provide students
with strategies he/she could have used to improve the assignment and resources for doing so.
Tracking Student Participation
Global Campus courses use the first 48 hours for introductions and overviews. Therefore, it is
of the utmost importance that students login shortly after the course opens. Instructors are
required to contact students who have not logged in within the first 48 hours of the course.
Once this period has expired, instructor must report students that have not logged in within 72
hours or those students that are not participating at desired levels. Contact must be attempted
privately, using the private email function within D2L (if the student has logged in at least once),
or by phone. If students do not respond after two attempts by the instructor, notify the Office
of Instructor Services so that additional attempts to contact the student can be made and
proper action can be taken. Remember that you can access students' personal email addresses
and phone numbers through Banner.
Recording and Submitting Grades
Instructors should have final grades completed in D2L so that students can view their grades no
later than Friday for courses that end on Tuesday. In most cases, the grade book within
Desire2Learn will have been created to calculate and display final grades for you.
Grades must be entered into Banner no later than Friday for courses that end on Tuesday, or
they will be considered late.
While grades will be visible to the students inside D2L, the official grade record will be the
grades you enter into Banner. If a student earned a “B” in a course, but because of an error the
grade is recorded as an “A” in Banner, the student’s official grade is “A.”
Feedback specific to the rubric
The most important feedback should come at the start of the course. The instructor should
spend a great deal of time on each student, being very specific about what is strong in a
response and what can be improved. Clarity is essential, particularly with international
students. Grade strictly at the start so that students realize that they cannot slide through the
course.
Resources that will help students improve
The textbooks provide excellent information but to illustrate a point, you may also use any
information based on your experience or information that you find through the media.
Students will be required to write several pieces of communication. It is important for students
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to understand that these are, for the most part, formal means of communication or emails.
Proper grammar and spelling are required for any letters and embedded in the modules are
places where students can access more information that will help with their letter writing skills
and research.
Timing of feedback
Turnaround time should be around 48 hours, if possible. Obviously if one assignment is due a
few days before the following one, you need to give them feedback before they hand in the
next one, or they may repeat the same mistakes. It is important that you provide feedback to
the personal reactions. You need to pick and choose when it is appropriate to provide feedback
in the discussion areas. To let the Socratic Dialogue flourish you do not want to jump in and
provide answers. When students are interacting with each other challenge students thinking
rather than distinguishing the discussion. One suggestion might be at the end of the week to
post your observations of their discussion. Another suggestion is to illustrate the discussion
with pertinent examples from your work or life experiences.
Protect your students
Because of the content, student discussions may become passionate or volatile. Guide the
students to write in a non judgmental way. To protect other students, you may need to remove
offensive or derogatory remarks. Monitor the posts often even though you might not provide
feedback.
5. Roles and Responsibilities
Instructor’s Role:
Post a Welcome Announcement
At least one day, but no more than 48 hours, before the class begins, you should post a
welcome announcement in the “News” section on the course homepage that students
will see when they first login.
Login and Participate
While instructor work schedules will vary, you are required to log-on and participate a
minimum of four times per week. Frequent intervals of brief instructor participation are
preferable to longer but less frequent periods. Students that are not familiar with
online learning may feel anxious and concerned without the confirmation provided by
face-to-face meetings, and will assume instructors are not present if they don't actually
see their postings in the discussion forum. Online interaction is dynamic, and fast-paced.
Frequent participation makes the course more manageable and the instructor more
responsive.
Group Communication
Instructors should post reminder announcements, called “News” in Desire2Learn,
throughout the week to help students stay on task. Instructors should post a News
announcement at least once every 48 hours throughout a course so that students have
new reminders to view when they login to the course. At least one former instructor,
has found that frequently responding to questions on the discussion board, has limited
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the need for frequent news announcements. Whatever, your method though, the
instructor should be communicating with students frequently.
Responding to Questions
Instructors should respond within 48 hours to student email or telephone requests.
Elluminate sessions with one or more students may be scheduled to provide real-time
"virtual office hours" in addition to email communications.
Reporting Problems
For technical support, please contact The Global Campus Help Desk by sending an e-mail
to gctechnologysupport@uillinois.edu or by calling (217) 333-7200 (Local) (877) 7758345
Mentor’s role:
New Global Campus instructors are assigned a mentor. Mentors are Global Campus
faculty and instructors that have been identified by the Instructor Services department
to have the necessary skills and abilities to coach and guide online instructors in areas of
online pedagogy, encouraging communication, active learning, technology
implementation, and other areas crucial to quality online courses. Mentors will also
provide procedural advice to help the new instructor’s better transition to the Global
Campus.
Instructors and mentors are required to setup a schedule and agenda for meeting a
minimum of once a week from the time a new instructor is identified through the
duration of the instructor’s first teaching assignment. Meetings are structured time to
discuss Global Campus policies and procedures, Learning Management System use,
online teaching strategies, technical support, and instructor and student resources
available through the Global Campus.
FAQs (Standard FAQs by Instructor Service and, in the future, will evolve by
instructors once in Wiki)
(Who to contact in what occasions)
 Who do I contact when there is an error (typo, wrong information, broken links, etc)
in the course? gccourseissues@uillinois.edu. The lead instructional designer will
address any issues.
 Grading questions: rubrics

 What do I do if a video is not working? Please contact instructor services by sending
an e-mail to
gccourseissues@uillinois.edu . The lead instructional designer will address any issues.
 Grading questions: rubrics
o Please contact instructor services by sending an e-mail to
gccourseissues@uillinois.edu . The lead instructional designer will address
any issues.

Who do I contact if a student cannot access the course?
gctechnologysupport@uillinois.edu

Who do I contact if D2L is down?
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o
Please contact instructor services by sending an e-mail to
gctechnologysupport@uillinois.edu.
III. Tasks, Insights and Teaching Notes (To-do List)
As you read through this section, please know that the “ I “ refers to the SME for this
course who has taught it 3 times so far, and her statements refer to circumstances she
has encountered. This information is purely advisory, you are certainly welcome to use
your own teaching methods.
1. Before the class starts
Please read the assigned readings and think about the current state of nursing practice.
Each Global Campus instructor will bring a different background and perspective which
that only enhances student learning and open doors for ideas. You may use articles or
current headlines in the news to add to the mix of ideas that students bring with them.
Please feel free to add these to your responses to them on a regular basis.
You need to post a welcome message. Here is an example of one created by the SME for
this course and used several times.
Welcome to NUSC 242 Concepts and Processes in Contemporary Nursing.
I am XXXX, the instructor for the course.
In Concepts and Processes of Contemporary Nursing, you will be challenged to consider the
concepts of adaptation, caring, culture, ethics, law, lifespan, role, and science, and their relative
importance to nursing in acute care settings and in communities. In addition, you will apply the
processes of communication, critical thinking, leadership, management, science,
teaching/learning, and the nursing process when you carry out the various assignments and
group work required to answer the question “What is Nursing?”
In this course, you will be challenged to think about nursing in ways you probably have not before.
The goal and hope of this class is that you get a better sense of what nursing truly is, defined not
just by some textbook but also by your own experiences.
I encourage you to get started by moving around freely in the course and getting use to it.
Information about the course can be found in the Course Overview (Start Here) section. You will
probably want to print the syllabus and course calendar. This course is broken into an Orientation
module, six content modules, and a seventh module devoted to creating your group presentation.
The Orientation module gives you instructions for reviewing the course and introducing yourself,
and then Module One: What is Nursing? will be open on XXXXX (date) for you to jump into.
One huge aspect to successful on-line learning is communication, with one another and with me.
The course has built into it several methods for staying connected and I strongly encourage you to
use them often.
The page you are reading right now is the News page for the course. It will be the first page you
see every time you enter the course. On it, I will post any announcements or updates pertaining to
the course and its materials.
Active interaction and participation in discussion is required by the course and I think you will find
it makes the course interesting and the material engaging. Within each module, you will be
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directed to participate in a discussion. Each module's discussion question is contained in its own
forum on the Discussions site, the link for which is found in the course banner at the top of the
course home page above the News. Also on this discussion site, you will find an area where you
can ask general questions about the course or its content anytime throughout the semester.
Another way to stay connected to me and to one another is through the internal email function
on the course site, the link to this can be found at the very top of the course home page. I will use
this as the means of contacting you, thus, you will need to check it frequently throughout the
week. Please use this function to contact me. I do check it several times per day.
You will become very familiar with the content button. It takes you, not surprisingly, into the
course content. As already mentioned, this course is broken into an Orientation Segment and
seven Modules. At this time, you are able to access the Orientation Module, and within a day will
be able to access Module 1. As we move along in the course, the other modules will be opened for
you to access. This method of unveiling modules at specified times keeps all of us working
together and makes discussion and interaction more dynamic and rewarding.
Again, I wish to stress the importance of communicating with one another and with me. Though
you might be doing this course at home, alone, in front of the computer, you are certainly not
alone in going through the experience. Take advantage of that shared experience by talking with
one another and me. You can find all of my contact information under Instructor Information.
Again, to get started, I encourage you to go to the Course Overview and study it, and then do the
Orientation Module. On XXXX (date), the first day of class, you will be able to jump into Module 1.
Good Luck to you all! I will be talking to you very soon. XXXX
2. What to do each week
Post announcements, evaluate the students’ progress, and identify students at risk.
Unhide each module as scheduled. See course calendar to see the dates the modules
run.
You will need to decide when you will conduct virtual office hours and post that to the
discussion board. As you go along, you might find that you need to change your hours to
be more conducive to students’ schedules, or you may need to schedule a random
meeting if you feel students need one. I generally post a reminder that I will be having
office hours. Here is an example of that posting.
I will be in the virtual office hours on Friday from 3-4pm. If you care to join in go to Content,
Instructor Information, click on Virtual Office hours, and wait for the various Elluminate screens to
emerge. You might have to click I accept at one point. You will eventually be entered into the
Elluminate session where you will see the list of those participating; go ahead a join in. If no one
enters the office hour session within the first 20 minutes, I reserve the right to leave. If you would
like to participate, but know that you cannot get on in the first 20 minutes, just let me know
ahead of time and I will wait for you.
1) Orientation
Students need to complete the orientation module before starting module 1.
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Instructors will need to check the drop box for the student Orientation checklist, let
them know if you have or have not received it, and post their 5 points in the grade book.
2) Modules
a. General To-do Checklist:
Unhide the modules
Provide feedback to students in their blogs, on the discussion board, and in assignment
grading.
Answer any emails.
Check Discussion board often. Participate with questions to facilitate the discussion. I also
participate with comments of my own if I feel that a “teaching moment” is needed, or that
incorrect information needs to be clarified.
Archive your announcements and put in the instructor manual for future instructors of this
course.
Conduct weekly virtual office hours
b. Per Module:
b.1. Module 1 (Week 1) What is Nursing?
b.1.1. Announcements
You will create and post your own announcements as necessary based on how your
course progresses. Below are a couple that I had to post within the first week of class.
GC is asking me to ask all of you to access your edublog and your wiki site now to make
sure there are no technical difficulties. They have someone standing by to help if we
encounter any. Most of you have established your blog, so I think we are okay there, but
go ahead and check the wiki site as well. We will use this extensively in week 4, and
possibly again in week 7.
The students’ first exposure to using a Wiki occurs in this course, in Module 4 (Week 4).
I posted the following announcement after one student had posted their
completed assignment to the discussion board and it was inferior to the
expectation. After making this announcement the first week, future individual
assignments submitted by all students were significantly improved.
Assignment: Definition of Nursing
I posted this in your team discussion forums but I think I will post it here as well. As
regards the individual assignment to come up with 3-5 concepts necessary in a definition
of nursing:
The assignment is to review the various definitions given in the text, the RNC
definition, and the ANA definition and take from them (and from your own beliefs)
concepts that you feel are critical to a definition of nursing. In your responses, please
try to reference or refer to the definitions you liked or did not like.
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This assignment is worth 25 points. The whole course is only worth 575, this should be a
hint as to the relative importance and formality of this assignment and that should be
reflected both in your development of your comments and in your presentation of them.
Let me know any questions. Thanks, XXX
Each module ends on a Tuesday at midnight. I usually do all grading Wednesday
morning and post an announcement reviewing the week. What follows is my
Week 1 review. You, of course, may write your own, or adjust this one as
necessary.
Module 1 Review
Each group came up with a decent definition of nursing; not bad for your first
assignment in this course. I think you got a hint as to how hard it is to narrow all of
nursing to a few concise lines. I think you also probably understand that largely that
process was designed to make you try to focus your thoughts regarding nursing. As many
of you suggested in your Review and Reflect, it is probably more realistic to come up with
a DESCRIPTION of nursing rather than a definition; that is what you will be doing for your
final project.
It is important now that you each keep your definition in mind as you move through
future modules so that each week you consider if there is anything that needs to be
changed, added, deleted, or stressed differently in the definition.
Here is another challenge for you. Learn (memorize, if necessary) your team’s definition,
then keep it in mind while you work and while you study.
Team A’s Definition: Nursing is the transpersonal science of providing compassionate
care to individuals, families, or groups through the use of a specific knowledge base,
skill, and clinical judgment. It is holistic in nature and focuses on defined goals
whether the concern is illness, prevention, or palliative care, working autonomously or
in collaboration with other health care professionals.
Team B’s Definition: Nursing-The use of scientific knowledge, evidence based practice,
and clinical judgment to provide holistic care and treatment and to evaluate
responses; advocating and promoting optimal health of individuals or groups by
collaborating with other contributors to give equal quality of care and to adapt
environments; educating about health and prevention of illness by developing an
interactive trusting nurse-client relationship.
Try to note examples of when you are doing it or specific parts of it, when you are doing
elements of nursing that you did not incorporate, or when, if ever, you are doing parts of
your practice that contradict your definition of nursing. Not only is this helpful in focusing
you own mind to a review of “What is Nursing”; it will help in the development of your
final DESCRIPTION of nursing for this course.
Good Job this week. Keep it up!
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b.1.2. Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
both blog and team discussion board; individual assignments; team participation;
team leader assignment; and review and reflect.
b. 2. Module 2 (Week 2) Is Nursing a Profession?
b.2.1. Announcements
The last time I taught this, students needed clarification on some of the
assignments, so I posted the following
Individual Assignment:
The rubric says you are supposed to discuss whether you believe nursing matches the
criteria of a profession. You are also supposed to discuss ways in which nursing is
admirable, trustworthy, and/or respectable, and which of these is most important to
you. These two topics are in the same assignment because they are connected to one
another.
You do this assignment by writing a clear and concise description of your views, posting
it, and then participating in a discussion once you have reviewed everyone else’s entry.
The 25 points will be allotted for the quality of your thoughtful, clear, well-written
statement, and to your participation in the discussion (see rubric)
Team Assignment
You are supposed to scan the literature and websites for resources that describe the
entry into practice debate; two to three resources are sufficient. From them and your
personal thoughts, you should list the pros and cons of each entry into practice level. For
example, I suppose that you will find or imagine that one of the cons of BSN level is the
cost of going to four years of school versus two years of school. I imagine that each pro
and con would take about one sentence. You should use citations and then list references
also. Try to use APA format so that you start getting use to it. You are also supposed to
try to come up with some answers or suggestions for the cons you list.
This assignment is confusing because the instructions might sound like you are supposed
to post links to the resources themselves. You are not. You are to read your resources
and from them post some information, and since that information is coming from them,
you have to cite and reference it.
Points are allotted for doing the assignment and participating in the discussion (see the
rubric; you will see that it deals with stimulating discussion, your original post; and then
participating in it).
The team leader will write a final one-page statement of where the team primarily
stands on this issue. Points will be allotted for quality of the written statement and
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consistency between the views of the team and the conclusions drawn by the team
leader (see rubric).
Let me know any questions. XXX
The following is the Module Review announcement for Module 2
Module 2 Review
As you start on Module 3, please take a second to look over these comments wrapping
up Module ; in some ways it is the most challenging topic in this course and continues to
be in nursing. There are three issues: is nursing a profession; what should the entry into
practice education level be; and is nursing admired, respected, and/or trusted. I think we
pretty well established that nursing does not meet the requirements of a profession. We
are doing fine in some areas but have serious trouble in others, namely education level
to become an RN. One of the reasons this topic is a challenge is that we all feel like
nursing is a profession and the word itself, 'profession', gets used pretty freely to
describe all sorts of disciplines. You will hear me continue to call nursing a profession
because I think we practice as professionals by keeping ourselves competent and
trustworthy. However, I do think it is important to go through the exercise of studying
the criteria of a profession to see where nursing lacks because these inadequacies are
affecting our image, reputation, and respect and those affect our working conditions,
salary, and autonomy.
As to the issue of admiration, respect, and/or trust, I don't think you will be surprised to
hear that nurses are generally admired. However, this is rarely for our intelligence,
knowledge, competence, and critical thinking; it is more for our compassion and our
ability and willingness to do a "dirty job". How many times have you heard someone say
"I could never do what you do"? Not one of them is saying "I am not smart enough to do
what you are doing" rather they are saying "I am not selfless enough to do what you are
doing."
It is also not surprising to hear that nurses are trusted. In fact, nursing can be very proud
of this characteristic. In a Gallup poll of most trusted professions, nursing has ranked
number one; ahead of doctors, clergy, teachers, police, firefighters, social workers, and
all others for several years in a row. I think that this is because of both our skill and our
knowledge, but also in good part because of our ethical and legal characteristics. People
believe that nurses will do no harm and try to do the right thing; and they know also that
if we don't, we will be held accountable.
Being most respected is tougher for nurses. I did a Google search of "most respected
professions/occupations". This resulted in a list of polls done by organizations, some
personal entries in the form of blogs on the topic, and some articles. I was pleasantly
surprised to see that the second entry listed nursing as the number two most respected
occupation. WOW! Then I realized that the poll was done in New Zealand. In our country,
nursing does not appear in the top five or even the top ten. Sometimes health care is
listed, but when you look closer, it is described as doctors and pharmacists. Occupations
that rank in the top five, depending on which poll you look at, include: doctors, clergy,
soldiers, teachers, and engineers. I can't help but think that the limited respect that
nurses have is somewhat connected to our education level. Sadly, many people think
that you do not have to be smart to be a nurse. They surmise this, one, because they
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define nursing by what we DO; and, two, because they see that it only takes two years at
a community college to become a nurse. Now we nurses know they are wrong about this,
but we sure are not very articulate or unified in getting that message across. Nursing
needs to work on a clear message of what nursing is, so that we can then stress what it
takes both personally and intellectually to become a nurse.
As to the entry into practice debate, I think it should be a BSN or higher, not only because
this will help to improve our image and lead us toward professionalism, but also because,
I think, there is a difference in the quality of nursing delivered by an ADN nurse and a
BSN nurse. Several of you listed the following fact sheet as one of your resources for this
topic, http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Media/FactSheets/ImpactEdNp.htm. If you haven’t
read it, you should. Plenty of the research suggests that hospitals with more BSN nurses
have better outcomes, thus there must be some difference between BSNs and ADNs. I
think it’s because BSNs spend more time on and are made to read, write, analyze,
debate, and discuss, and thus, they have better critical thinking skills, simply because
they have been made to THINK CRITICALLY!! Critical thinking is one of the central topics
for Module 3. I'll be interested to hear what you think. XXXX
b.2.2. Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
both blog and team discussion board; individual assignments; team participation;
team leader assignment; and review and reflect.
b.2.3. Special Note about Module 2
This module is personally and emotionally difficult for many students. They do
not like to hear that nursing is not a profession. They really do not like “Marilyn”,
the nurse who gives the video perspective, but mostly only because they do not
like the message.
Whether nursing is called a profession or not is not the issue. I always use the
word profession to describe nursing. The whole question is used as a means of
bringing up and discussing the other issues of nursing: education level;
autonomy; code of ethics; professional organization; base of knowledge; and
altruism.
FYI: Some students will argue that their ADN schooling was “extensive”. Sadly,
just because they think it is so, does not make it so. In addition, many will argue
that their two-year degree took four years to get therefore their education is
extensive. To this, you need to point out that whether it took two years, or four
years, or 10 years, it is only 60 credits, compared to hundreds of credits for more
advanced degrees. The truth is that the ADN education is intensive, but not
extensive.
b.3 Module 2 (Week 3) Is Nursing and Art of a Science?
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b.3.1. Announcements
This is the module 3 review announcement
M3 Wrap Up
This past week we took a hard look at “What is Nursing, a science or an art?”, and
though it is easy to come up with the answer of both, it is not quite so easy to say in
what ways. We saw many examples in your discussion of concepts and processes that
sometime can seem like a science and at other times can seem like an art. Critical
thinking is an example of such a concept and process. Because critical thinking is a
process it can be taught and can be learned, and with practice can be mastered; this
quality is what makes it a science; it is a step-by-step process. The art of critical thinking
is in knowing when to apply it. As you know from the course material, critical thinking is
“thinking about the way you think”. There is art involved in knowing that you even need
to do this. You must be open-minded enough to understand that your opinions, beliefs,
or assumptions might be incorrect. Then you must be creative enough to image in what
other ways the situation could be interpreted; and then you must have the talent to
incorporate that new interpretation into your beliefs and response. Open-mindedness,
creativity, and talent all suggest an artistic component to critical thinking.
A further way of considering critical thinking is to separate it from clinical judgment.
When we do this, clinical judgment, which is the knowledge, skill, and ability you have
regarding a specific content area or specialty, becomes the “science” of nursing and
critical thinking, which is critiquing how you have thought about the situation and
whether or not you have considered all options, becomes the art. It also occurs to me
that critical thinking is (or should be) something common to all nurses helping to make a
nurse, a nurse, a nurse; but that clinical judgment might be what separates nursing fields
so that one nurse is not automatically the same as another nurse.
In addition, to the many good points that were raised in discussion, I want to add the
notion of competency as an art. It sounds like it would be the science, doesn’t it?
However, where I think the tasks, IV insertion; NG insertion; medication administration;
catheter (of many types) insertion; wound care; etc., is the science of nursing; I think the
ability to do it competently with minimum discomfort to the patient, minimum stress to
yourself; and maximum effect for healing; is an art. The task is the science; the skill is the
art
There are a couple of rather large concerns associated with a discussion of the art and
science of nursing. In the practice setting, the art aspect is being jeopardized by the focus
on the science aspect. When nurses are assigned too many patients there is not enough
time to practice both the science and the art of nursing. Therefore, the science part,
which is generally the medical orders, takes precedence. When the job of the nurse is no
longer performing the art of nursing, then an argument could be made that there is no
need for a nurse; all we need is to have individuals who are trained to carry out the
doctors’ orders. Now we nurses know that if that is all that is done there will be poorer
patient outcomes, but nursing has got to step up and get a handle on articulating why it
is crucial that nurses be allowed to do the science of nursing, but also the art of nursing.
This is a complex issue because at the same time that nurses are not being allowed the
time to practice the art of nursing, the image of nursing is often perceived only as caring,
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in fact, so much so that we are often perceived as being “kind angels with no brains”.
This chasm between image and reality needs to be breached by nursing better
articulating what nursing is, why we are so necessary, why not every nurse is the same
as every other nurse, and why informed, educated caring is necessary.
b.3.2. Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
both blog and team discussion board; individual assignments; team participation;
team leader assignment; and review and reflect.
b.4 Module 4 (Week 4) Do Nurses Need to be Culturally Competent?
b.4.1. Announcements
In this module the teams must use the Team Wiki site and create a wiki on an
assigned cultural group.
Here is an announcement I posted directing them to review one another’s team
wikis.
Wiki Deadlines and comments
Hi Everyone,
Your final team wiki is due by midnight tonight, Monday. Please post the URL in the M4
"Presentation" forum.
You all should go in and view all of each team's wiki. You can go ahead and make
comments right on the various pages within the wikis. Each team member should go
back and check all pages for comments. I know that I have asked some questions and
suspect that others might as well.
Here is the announcement reviewing the Module 4 content.
M4 Recap Dec 3, 2008What terrific Wikis! You all did a great job; and I really want to publicly thank the team
leaders, XXXX and XXXX, for all their hard work setting it up, organizing it, and adding
color and pictures. From doing it, you all got the experience of dealing with Wikis, which
offers you now another option when you need to electronically present material.
More importantly, though, this week you got some actual exposure to some of the
cultural and ethnic beliefs of both Hispanic Americans and Japanese Americans. By
making yourself go through this type of exercise, you are gaining cultural knowledge
and skills that you can now incorporate into your encounters with patients. Cultural
sensitivity and awareness are other aspects of cultural competence that the nurse must
hone, first by doing self assessment of your own beliefs, values, and biases; and also by
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actively using critical thinking to imagine what life and, more particularly, illness,
suffering, and hospitalization are like through the eyes of another, in particular, another
so different from yourself.
Madeline Leininger, a nurse theorist, focuses on caring. In her study of caring, she
quickly realized that it exists in every culture, but is perceived and expressed differently
in each. She believes that caring and culture are so intimately entwined that a nurse
cannot be caring if s/he is not culturally competent. Think about that. We have all said
over and over that caring is a major focus of nursing. Now we have a nurse saying that
you cannot be caring if you are not culturally competent. Boy, that sure puts the ol'
pressure on! I wonder if you agree with her.
Leininger identified and described the three different cultural care modes: cultural care
accommodation, cultural care preservation; and cultural care re-patterning. Cultural
care accommodation and cultural care preservation are two modes that nurses need to
incorporate in their care and could do with limited inconvenience, but, sadly, we often do
not; it is easier for us not to because of that inconvenience. In some ways though, this
can be viewed as a long-term loss for a short-term gain. If we insist, for example, that
patients eat our food, and follow our visiting hours and number of visitor rules, this
might make our moment-to-moment job easier, but if it results in the patient having
more stress and reduced healing, we may be adding other patient care “work to our
loads. We will need to do more assessment, more care, and more treatment because
the patient isn’t healing in a timely manner. Cultural competency leads to stronger
patients and quicker healing; in the long run this reduces the nurse’s workload.
Cultural care re-patterning is a big step and usually is not undertaken by the nurse
alone. To make the judgment that a person or group is practicing a ritual that is harmful
takes a great deal of sensitivity, awareness, knowledge, critical thinking, and ethical
review to keep from imposing our definition of what is “harmful” on to a scenario that is
viewed as normal and even necessary by others. Re-patterning requires the involvement
of the entire healthcare team, the ethics committee; the patient and family members;
and other representatives from the cultural group, like decision makers, healers, and
spiritual leaders. All these individuals and representatives would be involved in
negotiation and consensus building to arrive at an arrangement that preserves cultural
values but does not harm the patient.
Hopefully from this module, from your self-assessment, and from your practice, you
have recognized not just that all people are different, but that all people are socialized
to adhere to values, beliefs, and practices by their cultural group. Luckily for nurses and
for patients, we can learn the specifics of those cultures: diet; space parameters; social
organization; time orientation; communication; death, dying, and grieving practices;
health beliefs; pain perceptions; and folk healing practices; and then incorporate that
sensitivity, awareness, knowledge and skill into our encounters with patients from
cultures different from our own.
b.4.2. Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
both blog and team discussion board; individual assignments; team participation;
team leader assignment; and review and reflect. In addition, in this module,
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instructors should review the wiki created by each team. You can make
comments right on the wiki pages. In addition, the wiki can be graded for look,
flow, completeness of content, and grammar, spelling, and referencing. To the
extent it seems fair, points off for the wiki can be deducted from the Team
Leader, and/or from the participation grade of individual students.
b.4.3. Special Notes about Module 4
This module is the students’ first encounter with Wikis. When they first encounter it, it
is a little daunting but they very quickly get use to it, so much so that they often choose
to use the wiki as their final presentation method in Week 7.
Each student should have been emailed a link to the course Wiki prior to the
start of class. You might have to remind them of this if any claim they cannot
access the course Wiki. If they cannot find the email, they must contact student
services.
You should make yourself comfortable with navigating, editing, and making
comments on the wiki.
You need to assign a cultural group to each team. The possible groups to
choose from are listed in the instructions for the team assignment.
b.5. Module 5 (Week 5) Does Nursing Treat Illness or Promote Health?
b.5.1. Announcements
I felt that some clarification was needed regarding the instructions for the Individual
Assignment, Health Risk Analysis, so I posted this announcement.
Health Risk Analysis Paper
Everyone, the Health Risk Analysis is due Tuesday by midnight.
Please be sure to note that the assignment asks you analyze your health status against
the COMPONENTS of either the Health Belief Model or the Health Promotion Model.
This requires that you pick the model that most reflects what makes you act; the Health
Belief Model, if you act out of fear of illness; or the Health Promotion Module, if you act
to feel invigorated and look good. Then you need to look at the components of the
model and give a brief statement as to how you and your behaviors fit that component.
For example, for the Health Belief Model, if your health risk analysis shows that you are
at risk for cardiac disease, yet you do not exercise or eat right, is this because you do not
feel you are susceptible, or is it that you do not think it is serious, or is it because you
have barriers to actions (and so on through the components? If you choose the Health
Promotion Model, go down the middle column and relate what your perceived benefits
to actions are, what your perceived barriers are, and so on.
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For the paper, you probably only need to give an intro paragraph summarizing the
results of your health risk analysis, and then stating which model you will use for
analysis. Then the middle section of your paper is mentioning each component of that
model and how you compare to it (again, for the Health Promotion model, you only
have to do the middle column). Finally, give a concluding paragraph. In it be sure to
comment on whether or not the risk analysis and the review of the models has or will
incite you to change your behavior, and whether or not you think you will be able to
sustain that change. You should be able to do this in two pages. If you lap over into
three, that is okay. Good Luck.
This the announcement giving the Module Review
M5 Wrap Up
In this module, we struggled with the question of whether or not nursing focuses on
health or illness. Nursing focuses on health.
Since illness is a state of health, the amount of nursing time spent dealing with it is still
centered on health. However, by using the language of "health" rather than "illness", we
are able to include with our illness care, all the other vast duties and roles enacted by
nurses who are caring for and caring about people who are not ill.
In this course, I think we have come to accept that even though we spend a great deal of
time doing taking care of ill peoples, nursing is much more than the doctor-ordered
technical tasks carried out at the bedside. In addition, we need to grasp that much of
nursing does not even occur at the bedside, but is being done in other areas of the
hospital and, extensively, outside the walls of the hospital; almost all of this enormous
part of nursing is treating health issues, not illness issues.
Of particular note is the, dare I say, obligation, but certainly role of the nurse, in
optimizing health. Even ER nurses whose tasks are often technical and clinical are
optimizing the patient’s current state of health when they stabilize a patient, and are
creating further opportunity for optimization when they do discharge teaching. Even
hospice nurses, whose patients have no hope of cure, can still optimize the level of
health for that patient and family at this time in their lives and this place in their health.
In our next module, we will revisit this topic when we talk about nursing care and health
care services provided to the chronically ill; people who require nursing services but who
do not define themselves as ill.
Good Job Everyone.
b.5.2 Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
both blog and team discussion board; individual assignments; team participation;
team leader assignment; and review and reflect.
b.5.3. Special Notes
Some students have trouble accepting that nurses focus on health rather than
illness, because as hospital nurses (especially ICU and ER) they do deal with
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severe illness. The challenge is to get them to think about all of nursing which
primarily deals with health. Topics or comments that tend to help in this regard
include the description of health as a continuum on which both well people and
ILL people are found. Therefore, when they take care of ill people, they are
dealing with that person’s level of health at that moment. In addition, students
like the idea of increased autonomy for nurses when we focus on health, for
example, nurses do not need a doctor’s order to teach pre-natal classes. Finally,
students seem impressed with the idea that because we focus on health, there
are all kinds of measures of success, namely improving conditions, or optimizing
health. They like that there is a lot more that nurses can do because we focus on
health, than medicine can do because it focuses on illness, for which the only
measure of success is cure.
To clarify this issue, I often have to refer the students back to Richard’s video
perspective.
b.6. Module 6 (Week 6) Is the Acutely Ill Patient the Only Focus of Nursing
b.6.1. Announcements
For the team assignment for this Module, the team is required to analyze and
discuss a reading, rather than do a team leader led task. I posted this
announcement near the end of the week.
Just one reminder that the Analyze and Debate assignment is worth 25 points rather
than the usual 10, so you will want to make sure you have done what the assignment
requires and what the rubric suggests.
This is the review announcement for Module 6.
M6 Wrap Up
CHRONIC ILLNESS AND CONTINUITY OF CARE REVIEW
In this country, it is almost impossible not to know someone with chronic illness; you all
do; and you all related accurately the large and small sufferings these individuals and
their families face. As mentioned in one of your readings, in opposition to and flux with
the small and large sufferings are possibility and hope. It is in providing possibility and
hope that the health care system and health care providers can have a profoundly
positive affect on chronically ill clients. Sadly, health care to the chronically ill in this
country is so undervalued and disjointed that rather than increasing hope, it actually
increases suffering. The breakdown is in the continuity of care.
In your discussions, you all gave descriptions of processes your hospital takes to ensure
continuity of care. Your descriptions were accurate and the hard work of employees
usually makes the process work as it should. Even Julie, who gave us her perspective this
week, commented that while she was in the hospital things went really well and she
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received all the attention she needed while there, and all the immediate services she
needed upon discharge. The problem, however, lies in the fact that chronic illness last
long past the hospital discharge planning; and the immediate at home services. In fact,
it lasts forever past them.
What continuity of care do we have for the chronically ill when they are not is a health
care crisis? The answer is quite a lot; spread all over the place; each with a different set
of eligibility criteria; each requiring a full recount of the entire health history; and each
providing only some small fraction of the care that is needed. By having these services
so hopelessly disjointed, we increase the suffering of the chronically ill by requiring them
to struggle through the agency maze. We make receiving services so complex that even
Julie's mother who is a nurse cannot keep it all straight. If that is true, what chance does
the average person have?
Not surprisingly, a possible organizing force for the maze of services and regulations is
nursing. Because nursing focuses on health, nurse are uniquely qualified to address all
the issues (sufferings) that the chronically ill face, not just their disease process. Because
nursing focuses on the holistic person, issues of finances, depression, roles changes,
relationship problems, caregiver strain, disease process, employment, rehabilitation,
and spiritual distress, all fall into the realm of nursing focus and response. Now I am not
implying that any one nurse assigned to a particular client and family would personally
address each of these issues. What the nurse could be though is the expert in organizing
all these providers; s/he could be the coordinator of services; the keeper of records; and
the adviser on rules and regulations. Though this nurse and nurses like her/him could
start their own businesses; it would probably be more efficient for them to be employed
by an already established health care provider, possibly a hospital community outreach
program, or by a physician for her patients; or by a large medical practice for all their
chronically ill patients; or by a health department.
The fundamental idea behind this kind of nurse provider would be the long-term
continued commitment to the client for a one-stop place to go with questions and
needs. The nurse, client, and client's family work as partners in maintaining continuity of
care for the client. The nurse does not do it all herself or himself, but the client and
family are not left to have to fend for themselves either.
By nursing adopting this role, we add to the typical social worker or case manager
function the possibility of disease monitoring, health education, and efficient
communication with other health care providers.
The nursing role and function described here is the type of opportunity nursing has to
increase the possibilities and hopes of patients, improve their health, and decrease their
sufferings......and almost all of it can be done without a doctor's order, because almost
all of it is nursing, not medicine.
Thanks for listening.
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b.6.2. Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
both blog and team discussion board; individual assignments; and team
participation, which for this module is worth 25 points; and review and reflect.
Please Note: this Module does not have a team leader assignment. Instead, the
team has an assignment called Analyze and Discuss, which is worth 25 points to
each individual.
b.6.3. Special Notes
Very near the beginning of Week 6 (Wednesday evening or Thursday morning), I
post the following announcement, just to start preparing the students for
Module 7.
Preparing for the Final Presentation
Each of you should be thinking about what you believe should be included in your team's
final presentation to the NSNA on the topic "What is Nursing?" You will be given time in
M7 to finalize the presentation, so you really don't have to "work" on it now, but you
should be thinking about it. There is no framework for what is to be included because
you are all to determine that within your team. One hint: it is a presentation on the
topic, so will need to include a description of what you all think nursing is, not just your
definition of what nursing is.
So be thinking about what elements you believe should be included in a description of
nursing, some of those will come from this course, but not everything in this course
needs to be in your description. You can also be asking your colleagues what they think;
and be checking the nursing literature.
Good Luck
b.7. Module Seven (Week 7) “What is Nursing?” Final Presentations
b.7.1 Announcements
Instead of a Module 7 review, a Course Review was created. Here it is.
Course Wrap Up
You have successfully completed another one of your RN-BSN courses. Spare me a
minute or two to review the basic challenge of this course, describing nursing.
Though you created great presentations describing nursing, the goal of the course was
not to have you create the penultimate and final statement on what nursing is. The goal
of the course was to challenge you, working nurses, even to think about it in the first
place. One of you wrote in your online journal that “I really hadn’t thought about it
before” and that is precisely the issue. Because we nurses don’t challenge ourselves to
consider what more there is to nursing than the technical care of patients, we are not
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good at articulating it. Moreover, because we are not good at articulating what it is that
we do and are, and why we are so necessary, we have put ourselves at risk. Consider the
number of ways in which our lack of articulation of the unique and necessary aspect of
professional nursing has put us in jeopardy:
Every time the hospital or a manager thinks it is okay to schedule six or more
acutely ill patients to one nurse, they are challenging us to describe what we
need "extra time" for, beyond doing the doctor’s order.
Every time the employer hires more aides, techs, and LPNs to supplant the RN,
they are challenging us to describe what we do that is more than what these
capable people can do.
Every time the AMA lobbies to have more control of Nurse Practitioners, they
are challenging us to describe what education we have, what knowledge we
have, and how we should not be considered just more than “physician
extenders”.
When these things happen, we want to blame the hospitals and physicians. Where they
do merit some of this criticism, before we complain too much, we nurses should do a
self-evaluation and considered why hospitals and physicians would act any differently.
I think our greatest opportunity for understanding and articulating what nursing really is
lies in understanding that we focus on health. By starting there, we can depict the
health continuum and show that nurses can step in and do nursing at any point from
complete wellness to terminal illness and death, and that other healthcare providers are
not commissioned or educated to do this. Most nurses do not consider this powerful
image until they are asked to think about it; then, a new understanding that nursing is
so much more than the technical tasks emerges.
Until nurses gain a better understanding of our unique and necessary role in the health
care environment, and, then, unite in articulating that truth, we will be viewed as nonautonomous employees, rather than professional practitioners. The gaining of the
collective understanding of our role and purpose starts with talking about it, imagining
it, and describing it. I hope that this course has helped you to do that, and, therefore,
you are now commissioned with being spokespersons for nursing to the broader
community but also, and maybe more importantly, to other nurses. Good Luck!
b.7.2. Grading
Instructors must complete grading for the module. This includes: Generate Ideas,
which in this module occurs only on the team discussion boards and not in
private blogs; individual assignments, which is team participation in developing
the final presentation; team leader assignment; and review and reflect.
Please Note: In addition to the typical assignments, the instructor must also
grade the final presentation per the rubric. Each team member will receive this
grade.
b.7.3. Special Notes
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The hypothetical plan throughout the course is that teams will develop a
presentation that can be viewed, and understood in its entirety, on the NSNA
website. Therefore, the teams must create an electronic presentation. There will
be no opportunity for oral presentation or question/answer sessions. Teams may
choose any electronic presentation method they choose. Developing the
presentation method, and working with the technology is part of the
assignment.
Many teams have chosen to do Wikis, and these have been very effective. One
team chose to do a Powerpoint presentation, which they envisioned narrating.
After some fits and starts, I had to counsel against narration. It is very time
consuming, and creates files that are way too large to load on the course site.
They ended up creating a perfectly fine non-narrated Powerpoint presentation.
c. Teaching strategies: SME
List any teaching strategies you use that you found effective when teaching this course.
My only teaching strategy, on top of what is built into the course, is communication and
participation. I get on the course site several times a day to check for questions. I also
participate in the discussions. I have to be careful to let the students talk first; but then I will
give my clarification, opinion, experiences, and questions as well.
d. Work samples (Instructors):
I will not post any samples here, but I do want to make a caution regarding the Individual
Assignments per module.
These assignments are worth 25 points to the individual student each week. The whole
course is only worth 575 points, so the individual assignments at 25 points each are the
primary evaluation tool for individual work. They are considered formal assignments.
Students often don’t understand the expectation that they are to submit a formal, wellwritten, documented assignment, which fulfills all the criteria of the rubric. I think that
because the assignments are submitted to the team discussion board rather than the drop
box, the students feel like the assignments are less formal, and will often post a poorly
developed, poorly written paragraph when a formal well-written 1-3 page paper was
expected.
The instructor can indicate expectations ahead of time in an announcement, or wait until
early assignments are posted and then caution students on the expectation. (See sample
announcement above under Module One information, b.1.1. Announcements)
e. Reflections (ongoing): What went well, suggestions for future improvements
Please see my notes above.
In addition, in the near future, I think I will work with the Instructional Designer, to make
drop boxes for each of the individual assignments. Students will then have to post
assignment to the discussion board and to the drop box. It is easier for me to grade and
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give individual feedback on a submitted document than it is to do it via the discussion
board.
IV. Appendix