Paper
Monday, November 5, 2007
375
Teach Them Where They Live: Using Technologic Innovations to Assist the Millennials in Early Progressive NCLEX-RN Review
Jami Michelle Nininger, MS, RN, CCRN, Nursing, The Ohio State University College of Nursing, Columbus, OH, USA and Tara Lynn Spalla, RN, MSN, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
| Learning Objective #1: identify characteristics of the millennial generation of learners |
| Learning Objective #2: describe innovative strategies using current technologies to engage the millenial learner in early and progressive NCLEX-RN review. |
Unlike students of the past, the current generation of nursing students is pursuing their academic studies in the face of multiple responsibilities. Many are balancing work and family obligations along with their academic course and clinical requirements. Therefore, finding blocks of free time to devote to NCLEX-RN review becomes problematic. Throughout the United States, only 88.7 percent of students pass the NCLEX-RN with the first attempt (NCSBN, 2006), and this is of concern to nurse educators. The pass rate and student time constraints demand that educators devise new approaches to assist the current generation, the Net Generation or the Millennials, to begin NCLEX-RN review early during their senior year of undergraduate study. Educational strategies that are best received by these learners are non-threatening, innovative and can be delivered to the technologic addresses where they live. These technologically-infused tactics must possess the ability to empower learners to become active participants in the process of knowledge acquisition, analysis and application. To meet the challenge of instituting early, progressive NCLEX-RN review, a variety of approaches have been employed by one undergraduate nursing program. They are delivered in small incremental doses in order to facilitate preparatory needs while not taxing the learners already bulging schedules. This review method also provides the relevance necessary to stimulate individual study.