Moraine Park Technical College

<h4>Integrating Online Discussion into Clinical Rotations</h4> <p>The ability to engage in critical thinking is considered a requirement for competent practicing nurses today. Nursing faculty have historically used the clinical postconference session as a way to foster critical thinking and have integrated these sessions into nearly every clinical course. Although face-to-face discussions have always been the preferred venue for postconferences, a number of barriers may be encountered: limited physical space within the clinical setting, lack of technological resources, or patient care needs that prevent some students from attending. Plus, some students are just plain tired after a clinical day. In addition, extroverted students may dominate the discussion, and even if the instructor quells this tendency, an introverted student may not be comfortable participating in this setting. This can lead the instructor to falsely evaluate introverted students’ critical thinking skills or their enthusiasm related to the clinical experience. [more...]</p>

Nursing skills have traditionally been evaluated using laboratory demonstration. The reality, however, is that skill performance does not occur in isolation in the practice setting. Nurses demonstrate skills while functioning within several nursing roles. Following an examination of the relationship of educational outcomes focusing on critical thinking, communication ability, and therapeutic nursing interventions, faculty at a two-year associate degree nursing program formulated Critical Thinking Vignettes as a method of assessing student outcomes. Students role-play a nurse-client interaction using a case study prompt. Student performance outcomes in skills demonstration, communication, teaching, problem solving, critical thinking, identification of resources, and response to environmental cues are evaluated. Preliminary reliability and inter-rater reliability studies suggest that this method provides a controlled method of assessing nursing outcomes reflective of actual practice.