Innovative Teaching Assignment Strategy Mean To Nursing Students Nursing Essay

The sponsoring organization of this article is the National League for Nursing (NLN). The NLN was founded in 1893 and was the first nursing organization in the United States. NLN has 30,000 members and 1200 institutional members. Membership to the National League for Nursing is open to all individuals, education agencies, health care agencies and other organizations committed to advancing excellence in nursing education. The cost of membership is broken into three categories which are, full membership to individuals who pays $110/yr, graduate student individuals and retired individuals who pay $75/yr. Member Benefits include a bi-monthly journal called Nursing Education Perspectives. They also provide special rates and discounts to members for testing services, conferences, workshops and publications etc. Membership is not free for students. NLN’s website can be found at HTTP://WWW.NLN.ORG.

NLN offers development of faculty, opportunities to network, test taking services, grants for research in nurse educatoion, defining standards in nurse education, and policies initiate public policies for its members . NLN’s primary goal is to promote nursing education and to build the nursing workforce. NLN’s goals and objectives state that they strive to be a leader in nursing education . They are committed to its members by seeking out and engaging nursing faculty by providing products and services that help in advancing their professional career. They see themselves as the champions of nurse educators by upholding the nurse educators interests across various arenas. They are also actively involved in the science of nursing education and actively support the research of nursing education.

The target audience for NLN are Nurse Educators. NLN provides opportunities for Nurse Educators to enhance their professional skills via workshops , conferences and certification among others. Nursing students cannot use the journal because the journals focus is on nurse educators however the journal helps student nurses to understand the importance of belonging to a community. It gives an idea about the process and discipline it takes to be a nurse educator. The journal enlightens the student on the policies, methods and initiatives taken by the journal to advance the career of its members.

In most cases nurse practitioners earn more in terms of compensation when they practice their profession than as a nurse educators. NLN provides tools and services to help nurse practitioners to choose a career path that is different from their peers. By encouraging nurses to become nurse educators, they raise the standards of newly graduating nurses, because they are being taught by educators who have a broad spectrum of knowledge and who have the resources to continually upgrade their own skills, thus the students get better resources and a better standard in education. NLN gives recognition to nurse educators by distinguishing nurse educators as a specialty area of practice within professional nursing.

NLN operates in several venues to achieve its goals. One such is the “Excellence Initiative”. NLN’s excellence initiative is geared towards ushering in innovation in the nursing education. They achieve this through several ways such as establishing panels consisting of members who have made significant contributions to nursing education. The panel uses the experience and wisdom of its members to provide leadership and vision. The Excellence Initiative also recognizes schools that show a level of innovation in three designated areas. This Initiative called “Centers of Excellence” allows students of these schools to enter a “Student Excellence Paper competition”, a competition that gives students an opportunity to share their views on excellence in nursing education. According to the NLN site, students display excellence by being able to come to class with references that they have discovered independently and being able to discuss in class. Another hall mark of excellence is to be able to brainstorm ideas, concepts etc that were discussed in class.

NLN is actively involved in setting standards. NLN helps steer policies that effect the nursing workforce development. NLN encourages its members to take an active role by using services that are available at the Government Affairs Action Center so that policies can be framed to fix issues faced by the nursing profession.

NLN is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) to administer the Certified Nurse Educator Examination. This establishes the profession of nurse education as a specialty. NLN’s commitment to Nurse education is highlighted by conferences, audio/web seminars, regional workshops. Members are encouraged to participate in these programs as it contributes to earning credits for continuing education.

NLN’s research program has Grants programs that are granted to its members. Some Grants are available to the public but preference is always given to it’s members. Grants promote the use of technology and research to advance the science of nurse education. As part of the research program, NLN also conducts surveys to understand current trends in the nursing topography.

NLN has a comprehensive testing service that cater to a wide audience. Test’s range from pre-admission exams to enter the RN program to various readiness test for certification. NLN’s exams are not available to individuals, but only to affiliated institutions. Institutions can order the test for the students.

NlN’s publications are available to it’s members through a bi-monthly magazine called “Nursing Education Perspectives”. This is a peer reviewed journal that only publishes articles that cater to the advancement of nurse education. NLN also publishes books on a broad spectrum of subjects that are related to nurse education innovation. These books can be ordered online via their web site.

Evaluation of the NLN’s journal gives one a perspective on the meaning of innovation. Innovation from a students perspective is to be pro-active rather than re-active. A student of nursing is expected to infer and discern ideas and thoughts by gleaning information from publications, articles and participating in professional organizations. Being able to digest and internalize these concepts allows one to approach an issue from multiple dimensions. Expressing these thoughts and ideas to peers requires one to present it in a manner that is fluid and thought provoking through formal means such as publications and journal articles. References and quotes allows one to connect different ideas from different journals and articles while at the same time giving credit to others where it is due. As an organization, NLN has given a voice and platform to nurse educators. Until recently (Prior to 2009) nurse education was not considered as a formal discipline. It was through the concept of professional socialization that NLN was able to achieve this.

The article What Does an INNOVATIVE TEACHING ASSIGNMENT STRATEGY Mean to Nursing Students?(NEUMAN, PARDUE, GRADY, GRAY, HOBBINS, EDELSTEIN, HERRMAN, 2009) from the bi-monthly magazine Nursing Education Perspectives narrate experiments on three separate study groups [Graduates, RN-BSN, Master’s] to understand the influence of innovation in teaching. Students were encouraged to develop their own programs and work in tandem with nurses, with educators acting as available resources. The results of the experiment showed that students experienced positive and negative attributes of innovation in the context of each program’s unique culture, values, resources, behaviors, and beliefs. What works for one program may not work for others (NEUMAN et al., 2009).

This article was chosen because it espouses the central vein and tenet of NLN. It is an example of how the organization tries to identify new methods and styles that could potentially help both students and nurse educators to understand what works and for whom. Some students find that traditional methods are more relevant to their learning experience while for others, being able to understand and conceptualize through non traditional means adds value to their learning experience. In a baccalaureate degree setting not all students have the same goals. Some students merely want to secure the degree just because it offers them a means of living while others might have much more higher expectations. The motivations and expectations of these groups vary widely. It was interesting to note that these thoughts were reflected in the article.

Nursing is a field where one is expected to constantly interact and socialize with peers as well as patients. Being a good communicator is an indispensable trait, whether it be through touch, facial expression, vocalization or written word. This does not come natural to everyone. Through professional socialization, one can learn to acquire these traits. NLN’s approach of constant innovation in the nurse education arena puts educators in a better position to convey these traits as well as use un-conventional means to transfer knowledge. The article shows that education in a formal class room setting is not always ideal. As a student who often questioned the need for class participation, forum participation, written assignments etc, the article advocates the need for such activities. Honing one’s skill to express oneself via formal papers , interacting with others via forums or in a classroom helps one acclimatize to professional socialization.

The article is an example of a qualitative research. The article clearly states that

3.     How does this article reflect research? Is it based on qualitative or quantitative research?  Is there any bias on the part of the author? (0-5 points)

4.     What potential impact would this topic have on healthcare and healthcare consumers?  How does the topic “fit” in the healthcare delivery system? Which members of the healthcare delivery team would be included? Picture yourself or your family members as the patient here, how do you think the standards of care/nursing practice presented in the article would affect you as the patient? Think also about patient accessibility to care, costs of any identified procedures, insurance factors, etc. Does the level of care identified present limitations to only certain patient populations? (0-5 points)

5.     Identify within which of the three roles of the nurse the article falls (Provider of Care, Manager of Care, and Member of the Profession – refer to Nursing Student Handbook).  Include the rationale for your decision. (0-5 points)