The involvement of BSN nurses in educational activities is an essential aspect of enhancing their qualifications and stimulating professional development. As part of the proposed learning course, selected topics will be addressed, which relate to context-based nursing practice and theoretical knowledge to acquire. One of the significant aspects of this educational program is to help engaged nursing students understand the importance of evidence-based work and workplace collaboration. The aim of the course is to offer specific nursing concepts that are relevant to subsequent work in a real care environment. The three educational modules will be reviewed from the perspectives of educational objectives, learning outcomes, resources to apply, and opportunities to put the acquired skills into practice. These modules include such topics as nursing education and anxiety with an emphasis on stress and coping, nursing education and learning with a focus on effective communication, and nursing education and rationalization with an emphasis on decision-making. The proposed learning course meets modern standards of nursing education due to the fact that it includes relevant concepts and methods to apply in the practice of BSN nurses.
Nursing Education and Anxiety
Course Objectives
- Describing the methods to cope with stress in the workplace by applying relevant educational materials and discussing individual situations with the audience. The number of the approaches studied will be assessed during the first hour of a two-hour session.
- Discovering the participants’ personal experience by comparing their professional knowledge with the theoretical concepts provided in the necessary literature and on appropriate websites. 30 minutes will be devoted to this activity, and each student’s background will be evaluated and measured according to a grading scale where five is extremely high knowledge and one is a lack of important knowledge.
- Combining the existing knowledge about stress and coping to compare the preparedness of the students involved to work in a real care environment. Within 30 minutes, the results will be summed up, and the quality of the assimilation of educational materials will be assessed by using the final test with predefined evaluation criteria.
Student Learning Outcomes
- During the first hour of the educational session, students will become familiar with the basic strategies and methods for coping with stress in the workplace, which are relevant to the practice of FSS nursing, and will be able to use these mechanisms in a real clinical environment. The total number of concepts learned will be a factor in the value of the learning materials reviewed.
- After completing the entire educational session, students will be able to assess their personal nursing background from the perspective of applying problem-solving skills. The final test scores will show how effectively all the materials are learned and whether all involved participants can expect to improve their working conditions by adopting effective approaches to dealing with stress and anxiety.
Content Overview
During a two-hour educational session, BSN nurses will learn about the most common methods of dealing with stress and anxiety in the workplace. As theoretical and practical backgrounds for analysis, academic concepts from relevant literature and the personal experiences of students and their peers will be discussed, respectively. Each of the involved participants will have an opportunity to express individual concerns and views on the importance of applying problem-solving strategies in the workplace and share unique situations from one’s professional practice, which were associated with the need to use stress coping approaches. The tutor will explain to the students that in the face of constant workload and high responsibility, BSN nurses often experience anxiety and related problems, such as burnout. As a resource base, findings from academic literature and related digital content will be applied.
Based on the discussion and analysis of available theoretical materials, students will complete individual tasks and take a test that will show how successfully they have mastered the concepts and methods of dealing with stress and anxiety. The key emphasis will be on comparing individual approaches to overcoming the issues of professional burnout and accumulated work fatigue. According to the results of the test, students will assess how well they are ready to implement the studied materials in the workplace in a real care environment.
Learning Resources
As useful resources to support the course content, both academic and online materials will be applied. The article by Wise (2017) is a valuable source for assessing which of the methods of influencing the audience is more optimal: teaching through detailed explanations or facilitating through stimulation and control. Another potentially valuable resource is the online recommendation article by Androus (2020). Her tips are helpful because the author is a BSN practitioner herself, and the compiled list of stress and anxiety coping methods is easy to follow.
Scenario-Based Learning Activity
A scenario-based learning activity will be developed to help students better understand the required learning materials on coping with stress and anxiety. In particular, all participants will be offered an appropriate case study describing a situation that requires applying problem-solving skills. To resolve a specific issue, options and answers will be offered. With the help of the acquired knowledge, students will need to decide which algorithm is optimal for coping with the presented obstacle and justify their decision based on the methodology they know. The problem can be ethical or professional in nature, for instance, a conflict with a patient or disagreement in the team among colleagues. Such activity will contribute to evaluating the relevance of specific approaches to resolving real problem situations in the workplace.
Nursing Education and Learning
Course Objectives
- Comparing the methods of nursing practice in collaborative and conflict work environments. During the first hour of a two-hour session, theoretical concepts of nursing education in the basics of interpersonal communication will be explored with an emphasis on overcoming interaction barriers. Based on a brief discussion, a concise matrix will be drawn up in which the value of the learned methods will be rated on a scale from one to five (ineffective and relevant, respectively).
- Justifying the value of the group methodology of student interaction based on the jigsaw approach. For 30 minutes, students will communicate with the tutor and one another to identify which forms of communication are the most applicable to their professional environment. At the end of the session, the participants will assess the effectiveness of specific methods themselves in accordance with the discussion while taking into account the criteria of mutual understanding and engagement for measurement.
- Recommending the best approach to maintaining productive nursing collaboration in the workplace. During the last 30 minutes, the tutor will offer students to complete group assignments in small teams. At the end of the session, the participants will evaluate the interaction algorithms and express their views on specific approaches while guided by the aforementioned effectiveness scale from one to five.
Student Learning Outcomes
- After completing the module, students will be able to navigate existing strategies for maintaining effective communication as an important aspect of teamwork. Due to a scale of one to five, participants’ knowledge will be assessed in terms of their ability to use specific approaches to creating productive interactions in the workplace.
- One of the learning outcomes is the acquisition of teamwork skills as an aspect that contributes to improving the general quality of care. The number of interaction methods studied will be seen as an indicator of success, and students will learn about all the possibilities to adapt to teams with members’ distinctive professional levels.
Content Overview
The module will focus on learning the basics of nursing education with an emphasis on collaboration as a component of productive team activities in a real care environment. Effective communication will be applied as the concept of the module, and the jigsaw approach will be the primary evidence-based strategy for training the necessary skills. To navigate existing approaches to establishing and maintaining collaboration in the workplace, as a learning outcome, will be achieved through practical exercises designed to bring participants together and enable them to assess the relevance of particular communication methods. Along with the principles of group work, the aspects of individual involvement will be considered as nuances that describe the value of each participant’s contribution. Based on the adaptation mechanisms, students will evaluate the need to include all group members, without exception, in the process of achieving the goals and objectives, regardless of the participants’ professional backgrounds.
Learning Resources
To make the educational process credible, relevant educational resources will be involved. One of them is the article by Sanaie et al. (2019) in which different nuances of the jigsaw approach are presented as the method of involving students in team activities. Another useful resource is the online guide offered on the official website of Regis College (“The importance of teamwork,” n.d.). Despite the fact that the latter source is aimed at MSN nurses as a target audience, the recommendations for the students of this course are useful and relevant.
Scenario-Based Learning Activity
To hone the skills of effective communication, in this module, a scenario-based learning activity will involve solving the problem in small groups. Students divided into teams will be offered a specific problem that relates to their immediate core activities. Based on the discussion and assessment of the group members’ opinions, a specific decision on the provided care issue will be obtained from each team. The group in which students will demonstrate cohesion and adherence to the necessary aspects of productive interaction is likely to perform the task successfully. This outcome will prove that the participants have acquired the necessary knowledge and skills.
Nursing Education and Rationalization
Course Objectives
- Choosing algorithms and strategies aimed to improve the decision-making skills of the course students. During the first hour of a two-hour educational session, the basic concepts of workload planning will be discussed in relation to the BSN nursing field. Student performance will be assessed by comparing the approaches used by the participants and analyzing all available decision-making methods in numerical correlations.
- Applying current knowledge to develop customized decision-making strategies applied to real work situations. Half an hour of the session will be allocated for the discussion and evaluation of the most challenging and controversial cases, and the number of students involved will determine the degree of group productivity.
- Interpreting findings from academic literature and public sources to compile BSN nurses’ optimal decision-making strategies in the care environment. The remaining half an hour of the session will be utilized for the multiple-choice test. Completing this test will allow course participants to appreciate the variability of rationalization methods and approaches, and the results will be announced at the next session.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Upon completion of the module, students will be able to navigate a variety of decision-making strategies and approaches and gain the necessary knowledge about the resources that are essential to establish a productive and rational care environment. The overall percentage of students who have written the test successfully will indicate the outcomes of the module.
- Each student will be able to reflect on their past mistakes and learn from peers’ valuable experience to apply relevant and convenient decision-making methods in further nursing practice. The number of solutions voiced to optimize the workflow will help to reveal how active and motivated students are in improving their individual professionalism.
Content Overview
In this module, the aspects of decision-making will be considered as crucial factors that allow not only overcoming challenges and barriers but also optimizing the work process. In particular, the themes of time management, alternative intervention strategies, planning methods, and other nuances will be discussed based on rationalization. The analysis of these topics will motivate students to improve their decision-making skills to apply them in the real care environment, thereby achieving the aforementioned learning outcomes. In addition, the necessary resources and tools to enhance specific attainments will be suggested and reviewed, including relevant findings in public sources and specialized academic literature.
Learning Resources
Since the topics of rationalization and decision-making combine theoretical concepts and personal experience, both academic and public sources will be used as learning resources. One of them is the textbook by Kennedy (2017) who offers various theories and ideas regarding expanding the educational potential of nursing students, including the topic of decision-making. Another valuable resource is an online platform sponsored by the Oregon Health Forum where feedback from real nursing professionals is collected, and various aspects of rationalization are discussed (“Nurses out front,” 2020). Both sources are of theoretical and practical value for this module.
Scenario-Based Learning Activity
To encourage reflective practice and support student skill development, a specific learning activity will be offered to the target audience. Course participants will receive short scenarios of several controversial cases addressing the current challenges faced by BSN nurses in the workplace: patient-provider communication, workload distribution, and some other issues. By applying the studied strategies and approaches, students will have to offer solutions to these controversial situations while referring to specific methodological justifications. The successful completion of this assignment will indicate that the course participants have learned the unique conventions of working in a real care environment and been able to combine existing and new knowledge to find optimal solutions.
Narrative Reflection
Value of the Course Elements
The course elements included in each module allow addressing relevant topics of nursing education and help enhance students’ professional knowledge, competencies, and skills. The assessment of problem-solving, decision-making, and communication attainments motivates the participants of the program to optimize their work in a real care environment and open up new horizons for professional development. Discussions, group projects, and individual assignments provide an opportunity to combine educational activities, which, in turn, reveals professional potential in the course participants and opens up new career prospects for them. In the face of high workload and requirements for BSN nurses, the concepts and practical tools reviewed are valuable resources to apply to assess the range of future tasks and eliminate any errors associated with the lack of knowledge. Therefore, all elements of the course serve one purpose: to help professionals adapt to a specific work environment by training the necessary skills.
Learning Outcome and an Online Learning Environment
One of the planned learning outcomes is to expand knowledge of problem-solving in the nursing environment through the study of relevant concepts, in particular, overcoming stress and anxiety. With regard to the general learning theory, this outcome is one of the main ones since the ability to conduct sustainable activities under the conditions of potential stressors is a critical aspect of nursing work. Concerning the online learning environment, this theory is transformed slightly, but the changes affect the learning process itself. In particular, due to the lack of direct contact with peers, students may find it difficult to discuss current issues and personal experiences. In addition, remote learning is not conducive to active communication, which reduces the likelihood of receiving valuable recommendations. To overcome these challenges, students should enter into discussions even online through special virtual applications. Utilizing personal experience as a background for discussions can also be a valuable solution to address poor interaction and, thereby, increase the quality of learning.
Relevance of Learning Resources
The learning resources offered are valuable for this educational course. The article by Wise (2017) provides an explanation of teaching and facilitating concepts and explains how each approach can be applied to specific learning goals. Androus (2020), in turn, addresses the current issue of stress in the workplace, which is an essential topic of discussion. The online resource offered by Regis College explores the key virtues of nursing collaboration as a critical aspect of productive work (“The importance of teamwork,” n.d.). The study by Sanaie et al. (2019) supplements the practice guidelines with theoretical concepts and offers an objective rationale. Online learning can be challenging, and Kennedy (2017) describes the best methods to overcome these obstacles for productive learning. Finally, the online article by the Oregon Health Forum offers to assess the experience of professional nurses and discuss their decision-making strategies to gain a comprehensive picture of the potential range of responsibilities (“Nurses out front,” 2020). All these resources are valuable and appropriate for the course in question.
Value of a Scenario-Based Learning Activity
One of the considered scenario-based learning activities is the analysis of controversial workplace situations that require students to adequately assess potential challenges by using the studied decision-making skills and approaches. This hands-on task is suitable for enhancing the professional skills of the course participants due to an opportunity to combine existing academic background with practical experience. Moreover, this activity stimulates reflection on specific situations, which contributes to evaluating the proposed problems objectively finding ways to overcome them. Thus, such analysis is a convenient and valuable tool to improve the professionalism of the course students.
References
Androus, A. B. (2020). How to manage your stress as a nurse. Registered Nursing. Web.
The importance of teamwork and collaboration in nursing. (n.d.). Regis College. Web.
Kennedy, S. (2017). Designing and teaching online courses in nursing. Springer Publishing Company.
Nurses out front: The future of nurse-driven health reform. (2020). Oregon Health Forum. Web.
Sanaie, N., Vasli, P., Sedighi, L., & Sadeghi, B. (2019). Comparing the effect of lecture and Jigsaw teaching strategies on the nursing students’ self-regulated learning and academic motivation: A quasi-experimental study.Nurse Education Today, 79, 35-40. Web.
Wise, D. (2017). Teaching or facilitating learning? Selecting the optimal approach for your educational objectives and audience. Journal of Extension, 55(3), 1-5.