Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
This presentation is part of : New Models in Nursing Education
Creative Approaches to Professional Development in Nursing Students: Building Active Strategies to Complement Classroom Instruction
Terry L. Bosworth, PhD, RN, Division of Nursing, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT, USA
Learning Objective #1: describe the benefits of using PBL in nursing education and define ways in which they could implement PBL in both theory and clinial courses
Learning Objective #2: describe the benefits of having a community-based education and cultural immersion experiences as opportunities to creatively teach nursing concepts and clinial behaviors
The information explosion, advances in technology and the unique learning and processing needs of 21st century college students have challenged faculty to integrate active learning strategies into their classrooms.  Responding to this challenge our faculty introduced three different but related active learning strategies into the nursing curriculum:  problem based learning (PBL), community based education (CBE) and an international immersion experience.  Our objective was to create avenues through which students could rehearse and develop professional behaviors in a supervised context, such as critical thinking, problem solving and decision making (PBL); research, advocacy and resource development (CBE); and leadership through involvement with local or international health care partners responding to the needs of the underserved in a developing country (international immersion experience).  This poster will outline each of the projects and their goals, and provide evaluation summaries generated from involved students, faculty and community members.  Evaluations will reflect what has been learned, the effect of the experience on professional development, and the long term effects on the individual or community.  Recommendations emerging from each project, such as the need for faculty development and ongoing peer review with PBL, the importance of lasting and meaningful projects within the community settings, and the benefits of a sustained relationship with the international partners to achieve optimal success over time will be provided.     

See more of New Models in Nursing Education
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)