What does an innovative teaching assignment strategy mean to nursing students?

The concept of innovation in nursing education has been addressed in published literature on faculty-defined and faculty-created teaching strategies and instructional methods. In this project, innovation is defined as "using knowledge to create ways and services that are new (or perceived as new) in order to transform systems" (Pardue, Tagliareni, Valiga, Davison-Price, & Orchowsky, 2005). Studies on nursing student perceptions of innovation are limited, and it is unclear how undergraduate and graduate students conceptualize innovative learning experiences. This project explored students' perceptions of their experiences with instructor-defined, innovative teaching/learning strategies in four types of nursing education programs. Issues nurse educators should consider as they apply new techniques to their teaching are discussed.

Community-based nursing education of prelicensure students: settings and supervision.

This study of prelicensure nursing programs had a fourfold purpose: 1) describe what community-based settings are being used by faculties in associate degree (AD) and baccalaureate degree (BSN) programs to provide community-based nursing care experiences; 2) explore whether or not the settings used in AD and BSN programs differ; 3) describe how faculties in AD and BSN programs provide for supervision of students in community-based settings; and 4) synthesize from the data what might be best practices for faculty-student supervision in community-based settings. A web-based survey was sent to 827 accredited AD and BSN programs with usable email addresses; 324 programs (39 percent) completed and returned the surveys. Findings indicated that students were placed in a variety of settings, including public health departments, schools (K-12), prisons, and home care. Community-based activities were in the following categories: immunizations, surveillance, data collection, health teaching, case management, treatments, and procedures. Depending on the activity, students performed nursing functions independently 4 percent to 39 percent of the time. Depending on the activity, preceptors were sole supervisors 27 percent to 40 percent of the time. Telephones, cell phones, and pagers were the primary means of faculty-student contact. AD and BSN students in the same settings performed the same activities. The only significant differences were that BSN students were placed in K-12 schools for community-based experiences more often than AD students, and they engaged in case management more often than AD students. Based on these findings, a model for community-based education is proposed.