Lost in Translation: Infusing Ignatian Pedagogy in On-Line Pre-Licensure Nursing Education

This project seeks to better integrate Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm (IPP) into online teaching in a hybrid environment. In doing this, the aim was to find ways in which online teaching could be more reflective across the five domains (context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation) of IPP. As such, our aim is the movement away from a “banking model” of online education to one that engenders a deeper praxis for both facilitator and student. In using a pre-licensure nursing program as an example, in what follows we demonstrate how one might go about infusing IPP into a new hybrid program that has to account for Theory, Simulation, and Clinical pedagogical aspects.

Our starting point for the infusing of Ignatian Pedagogy (IP) into the online nursing education commences with our understanding that reflection needs to occur between facilitator and student. Our thinking has been guided by the fact that the existent research often suggests more emphasis on one self-reflectivity for either the student or the instructor. However, we want to suggest that in an online setting, reflection needs to be both central to student and facilitator. In reflecting on the role of domains of IP and their ability to provide transformative learning in a hybrid setting, or focus is on how nursing students, after experiencing Theory, Simulation, and Clinical can then enact the characteristics of these domains into their lives and praxis of care for others in their respective specializations. However, we take a step further, by encouraging the facilitator to reflect on the value of the teaching, its relationship to the profession, and potential implications. Of course, students are asked to do these a well, but our aim here is to make this a holistic endeavor for both student and facilitator. As the facilitator revisits content to be taught, the aim is on deepening own’s self-awareness while paying attention to alternative responses with the aim of critically engaging and challenging the student in Theoretical, Simulation, and Clinical aspects of the program.

Using IP to Guide Reflections in the Theory Portion of a Hybrid Course

Higher education is being delivered in an increasingly technological and mission driven format. Even the pre-licensure level of nursing education is affected. Hybrid programs are being offered as an attractive option for second-degree students who seek to earn a Baccalaureate degree in Nursing (BSN) at an accelerated pace (e.g. 3 semesters as compared to the traditional 4-year track). While there is little doubt that content can be delivered effectively in an on-line environment, the concern is how to assure that we provide transformative education. As we have learned from this program, “education is not education for understanding alone; it is preparation for "good work"( Mountin and Nowacek, 2012). A major outcome of our program is to develop the students’ ability to critically think and make good and safe clinical judgments. It is also imperative that students learn to advocate for their patients, families, and the profession itself. All of this required depth and creativity in thinking, which can be lost in the on-line world.