Innovative Teaching/Learning Strategies for Healthcare Education

For years, the template for teaching healthcare courses has been comprised of one instructor in front of a class lecturing to students who may or may not feel vested in the information being given.  Students cannot be held at fault for finding little interest in a lecture-based format.  Changing modes of communication used by students dictates the need for a changing format of instruction.  In order to deliver an ever increasing amount of training needed by today’s nurses, teaching strategies have to change.

Engaging students in an active learning process may be the most important key to improved healthcare education.  By providing exemplars of critical thinking strategies and activities, educators can come out from behind the podium and allow active learning to take place.  Students will benefit from diverse learning strategies that allow subjective interpretations, while discovering new information through evidence-based practice.  Some examples of teaching/learning strategies are; discovering suitable nursing strategies through the use of case studies, improving reasoning skills through debate, analysis of relationships through the use of concept maps, enhancing the understanding of concepts through analogies, using teamwork as a tool for group problem solving techniques, and employing simulation that includes role playing as a method of comprehension.

            By providing clear instructions and including interesting subject matter, students may find themselves learning despite any reluctance felt about utilizing different learning concepts and techniques.  Getting students up out of their chairs and involved in the learning process has to be the key to increased participation in their own education.