2007 Innovative Teaching Awards Announced
Date released:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Dory Hulse 434-924-0085 doryhulse@virginia.edu
2007 Innovative Teaching Awards Announced
Technology emerged as the underlying theme of this year’s Innovative Teaching Awards presented to faculty members by the School of Nursing Alumni Association. The awards are intended to foster creative approaches for more effective teaching. Winning projects for 2007 include: Use of Simulation Technologies to Educate Generation X and Beyond; Nursing Education in Sleep Assessment and Measurement; and You’ve Got Email: NCLEX Question of the Day.
Assistant Professor Reba Moyer Childress, MSN, FNP, APRN-BC and Director, Clinical Simulation Learning Center
As Director of the School’s Clinical Simulation Learning Center, Moyer proposed an internal program of intense simulation training to increase the number of faculty incorporating simulation into their teaching and to equip them for more effective use of the technology in their own teaching and in collaboration with other clinicians. Virginia leads the nation in the number of animated simulation technologies and other innovative simulation technology; there are over 75 SimMan and SimBaby manikins in the Commonwealth.
Use of Simulation Technologies to Educate Generation X and Beyond will systematically support the expansion of simulation integration into selected nursing or specialty courses within the School of Nursing through a Simulation Faculty Institute, a two-day workshop to be held in the fall or winter of 2007. A minimum of 8-10 faculty members with targeted specialties in Psychiatric/Mental Health, Women’s Health and Pediatrics, Oncology, Geriatrics and Medical-Surgical/Critical Care will participate. These specialties were chosen to develop both common and “hot topic” scenarios to better prepare students and clinicians for critical situations that could arise. Limited time for unit orientations, limited days-of-stay in acute care settings, and increased concern about terrorism or environmental catastrophes all suggest a growing need to better prepare nurses for emergency situations.
Instructor/Research Assistant Jeanne Erickson, MSN, RN, AOCN; Assistant Professor Karen Rose, PhD, RN; and Associate Professor Cheryl Bourguignon, PhD, RN
Sleep-wake disturbances are common problems for healthy and chronically ill patients of all ages, and poor quality sleep and insufficient sleep are linked with a variety of negative health and safety outcomes in various patient populations. Adolescents with insufficient sleep have more accidents and negative moods and lower school performance. Adults with cancer and other chronic conditions who sleep poorly report greater levels of pain and other symptoms and decreased quality of life. Nurses need to understand sleep symptoms to better assess and intervene to improve patients’ care and they are ideally suited to contribute new knowledge through research.
Nursing Education in Sleep Assessment and Measurement will underwrite equipment and software needs so the School of Nursing can build sleep assessment and measurement into nursing curricula. The first step will be to offer a Special Topic sleep class in fall 2007. Following this pilot course, content will be developed for an elective nursing or interdisciplinary course. In addition to an actigraph, its data interface and software, the funding from this grant will also purchase a set of educational slides and notes on basic sleep physiology. Students will not only learn the theory and discuss sleep patterns in others, but also will wear the actigraph themselves and document their own sleep patterns.
Instructor Vickie Southall, MSN, RN
When nursing graduates take their NCLEX examination for licensure, they are being tested in two ways: on their knowledge and on their ability to take an online test. Southall has proposed a pilot program to reinforce classroom knowledge while presenting students with practice in NCLEX-style online questions. With You’ve Got Email: NCLEX Question of the Day, she would email to her pediatric nursing students multiple choice questions on a daily basis covering information presented in class a week or so before. Scrolling down from the question, students could find the answer and its rationale. The system would reinforce learning new information, highlight any gaps in understanding, and alert students to topics they may want to bring up in post conference each week where they would have a chance to further discuss concepts and to ask questions.
Funding from this grant will pay for a resource for the questions and for development of software within the school to allow for all questions to be composed and “banked” at the beginning of the semester with a schedule for their dissemination on a daily basis. Assuming this pilot is as successful as previous Innovative Teaching Award initiatives, it may be adopted by various faculty for multiple courses. A previous proposal to create special baby books as an exercise in learning child development, patient education and as a memento for new parents has been incorporated into the curriculum due to feedback on its positive impact on student learning.
These Innovative Teaching Awards are made possible through the generosity of alumni and friends to the Nursing Annual Fund. The Alumni Association has funded these awards for many years to stimulate creative nursing education and to support projects or course development activities to promote excellent, innovative and cost-effective teaching methods.
The University of Virginia School of Nursing stands among the top 5% in the nation, ranked 19th by US News & World Report; two of its graduate programs are currently listed in the U.S. News Top Ten. With a vigorous research program that includes studies in rural health care and disparities, oncology, gerontology, complementary therapies and nursing history, the School is ranked 22nd in National Institutes of Health nursing research funding and first in the country for doctoral-student authored NRSA Fellowships. The School has implemented new programs and strategies to address the national nursing shortage and the concurrent need for more highly educated nurses to deliver increasingly complex health care. For more information about the UVA School of Nursing and its programs, visit www.nursing.virginia.edu.