Distance Learning in Nursing Education: Pedagogy and Practice

Service Learning and Critical Thinking in Nursing Education

Leung et al. (2012) examined how nursing school students can apply critical skills in appropriate ways that maximize critical thinking. The researchers documented the ability for nurses to interact and learn with people from elder generations. The authors wrote: "Educators and instructors who work with young health professionals need to be aware of the short-term effects of service learning activities on students' knowledge of aging in general and their longer-term effects on students' knowledge of mental health care needs in the aging population. The knowledge and attitude gains are limited. This may suggest that service learning activities stimulate students' learning of aging issues and older adults' actual needs."

This study is useful because it highlights the importance of service learning and how this approach can be used to increase patient outcomes. By documenting service as a learning method, it explores critical thinking models that can be applied in academic forums and teaching experiences.

Core Learning Principles for Nursing Students

Learning principles based on ideals of equity, fairness, and exploration of novel themes serve nursing professionals well. For example, the principle of scholarship is highlighted as a means of attaining excellence within the classroom. Nursing learning methods must be based on solid scholarship and empirical evidence. Facts, data, and research need to be grounded in time-honored, research-based evidence.

Another important learning principle is the freedom to explore subjects and topics. Learning requires breaking norms and past ways of thinking. Keeping an open mind is paramount in achieving real learning. Asking the right questions that attempt to delve deep into unknown concepts can be threatening to well-established institutions, and some resistance is to be expected when breaking free from outdated modes of thinking.

Assessment Standards and Fair Testing Practices

The Code of Fair Testing Practices, located on the APA website, provides useful guidance for educators developing tests to assess student learning. This detailed code presents helpful models that establish a fair testing environment. Fairness is the explicit intention of this code, assisting nursing educators in developing assessments that ensure "all test takers are given a comparable opportunity to demonstrate what they know and how they can perform in that area."

This document should be understood by all future instructors and teachers who depend on creating fair assessments. The code should be used as a guide with the same eternal principles that make education an important practice of human development. Some revision is necessary to update technological advances from the last decade, as these methods have altered the way teachers approach their profession.

Patient Education Evaluation Strategies

A reasonable evaluation strategy for patient education should be based on the particular circumstances of the patient themselves. The amount of detail necessary for patient education should not exceed that of the medical professional, but requires some basic components that illuminate the most important aspects of healing. First, patients need to understand the risks and dangers of their condition. Another important component of patient education relies on the patient knowing the treatment options available. Strategies in forming these evaluations or assessments should reflect strong leadership ideals coupled with a fair and unbiased attitude.

Technology has provided new and novel ways for nursing educators to reach out and teach students the proper and necessary components of their profession. Smartphones have provided individuals with massively powerful tools to communicate ideas with detail and speed not seen in previous generations. These devices also serve as a distraction if not properly aligned with the activities of learning they are designed to support.

Technology's Role in Nursing Education

Learners must apply personal discipline when using smartphones in any educational context. The amount of information available to students presents problems of information overload. Teachers need to streamline lessons to avoid the distractions of technology and allow for step-by-step growth.

Nursing Students and Technology Use

Nursing students are both similar and different to other students who use technology to advance their education. Nurses are different due to the nature of their work and the importance of life-saving and health promotion in their occupation. The nature of nursing also requires a constant inflow of new and updated information that can be accessed for educational purposes. Other types of students in subjects such as art, mathematics, and philosophy may not need the readily accessible information that technology can provide.

The History and Evolution of Distance Learning

Before the advent of the internet, correspondence courses were used to facilitate distance learning. This type of education's historical development began when people in remote environments, with no access to learning resources, could attend various courses of learning by mail. This type of distance learning was conducted by mail services and required mostly independent study and completion of certain assignments. This format has advantages because of its independent nature and because it is relatively inexpensive and does not drain resources. However, this method has drawbacks because group learning has significant advantages.

Students who choose distance education methods to achieve their educational goals must have certain attributes that allow them to be more flexible and willing to learn independently without micromanagement. This faculty of independence is essential for those students willing to experiment with distance learning programs. These programs will demonstrate a student's ability to teach themselves in many instances. Teachers in these types of programs need to be correspondingly hands-off and allow students to explore their own personal approach to the subject at hand.

Student Characteristics in Distance Education

The role of faculty in distance learning is to guide students into learning. These teachers must demonstrate their ability to act as a valid resource that students can depend upon. Faculty's role will also depend on the course, subject, and resources available in the program. What is most important for faculty in understanding their role lies in their ability to act as a medium between the students and the course objectives. This role is more of a facilitator than a traditional educator.

Faculty Roles in Distance Learning Environments

Distance learning courses also emphasize students working with one another in collaborative efforts. Teachers and faculty need to approach this resource and exploit it for all its worth as a facilitator within distance learning courses. Encouraging students to learn from all experiences and interactions should be the goal of any teacher. Learning can occur in many different ways and in many different environments. Identifying these opportunities and translating them to students is essential.

As one scholar noted, "The online course facilitator encourages substantive interactions among the participants by monitoring and shaping conversations with targeted interventions, and by refraining from extensive direct interaction. If the online instructor puts him or herself in the focal point of all communication, teaching is cumbersome and less productive even with enrollment as small as ten or twelve." (Ryan, 2004).

Assessments performed by educators need to be held to a high standard of quality regardless of format or course. Distance learning environments and traditional learning environments each provide unique opportunities for students to learn. Assessing students in distance learning environments requires a different approach than historically standard assessment methods. For instance, test-taking is a more reliable method in traditional classrooms and can ensure a high-quality assessment. This same approach would most likely not make a high-quality assessment in distance learning programs due to the opportunity to cheat.

Assessment Methods in Online Nursing Courses

A teaching faculty can be woven into a tight-knit group if the proper leadership is applied to the group. This is very helpful in building rapport within the group to create a more dynamic and effective learning environment for students to thrive within. The advent of distance learning programs has provided more flexibility for academic institutions in hiring the right people to teach the right courses. By including adjunct professors, certain risks are being taken, but these can be mitigated if high-quality instructors and professionals are chosen to lead these courses.

Building Effective Distance Learning Programs

As organizations work towards more online education programs and the corresponding rise of adjunct teachers, it is necessary to enforce quality over quantity in managing these programs. Extra precautions should be taken when considering online adjunct professors because there will be less opportunity for leadership to exert their influence on these teachers, and they need to be of high quality beforehand.

Howell et al. (2003) research, although perhaps slightly outdated, provided many trends in how distance education is evolving. Trend 2 in the article suggested that "Students are shopping for courses that meet their schedules and circumstances." This trend has and will continue to impact nursing online education as the tailoring of specific programs becomes more commonplace. The rise in the need for more nurses nearly twenty years ago demonstrated how the supply and demand of both healthcare and healthcare education have significantly changed. This trend was correct in its prediction that students are able to personally cater to their needs as humans as they go to nursing school. This flexibility has attracted many nursing students who otherwise would not have been able to attend and eventually become nursing professionals.

Trends in Distance Education and Nursing Demographics

However, the very same force that caused the boom of healthcare may also serve as its challenge as well. The Baby Boom Generation has now entered their primary age for entering the healthcare system, and this demographic has stressed the demands of the medical community in many new ways. Soon all of these baby boomers will be aging out and relieving some of the stresses put on the medical community. This relief will then reveal a trend of potentially too many nurses in the labor pool and competition for jobs may become very harsh and difficult. While the full impact of this trend may not occur for another 5 to 10 years, the shift in labor will no doubt impact the medical profession in a variety of ways.

The career potential for nurse educators in the short term is very bright. Distance education has become a very realistic and efficient means of educating those who seek to learn more. The need for high-quality educators who can approach and teach subjects from a distance is great. This need is predicted to continue growing for some years and eventually diminish as the need for nurses and other professions also decreases. Education will soon become more self-service, and institutions themselves are in danger of losing authority as long as individuals can find ways to educate and empower themselves without help from institutional influences that have traditionally dominated the power balance.

Career Prospects for Nurse Educators

Conclusion: The Future of Nursing Education

I do not feel that there should be any additional criteria to become a distance nurse educator. It is important for nurse educators to be well versed in both traditional and non-traditional teaching methods. Even if a traditional teacher who has been successful in the past without any distance education experience should not be ignored due to the vast amount of experience that person may have. It is important for those who select and choose who teaches these classes in the department leadership branches to assign teachers who can succeed in any environment and under any circumstances.