November 12th to 19th, 2007

Yesterday, I attended a university student committee meeting. In 2008, there will be a diversity task force forming to address the needs of diverse students on campus. For example, the Muslims students have requested a 24 hour prayer room on campus. Many of our diverse students have problems and there is no one on campus who they can discuss their needs with. We will be hiring a counselor to specialize in counseling students with problems related to diversity.

Since we are increasing the student diversity on our campus, I wanted to look at how I could make some curriculum changes in the courses that I teach to meet the needs of these students. These are some suggestions that Amaro, Abriam-Yogo, & Yoder (2006) mentioned in their research study:

1. Ask for tutoring with English. The university does not provide English tutors to students. Honestly, I do not know where I could refer students for an English tutor. I need to bring this issue up at the next committee meeting.

2. Have papers edited by English-proficient classmates or family members. We provide a writing center at the University so this option would work.

3. Take a medical terminology class. We require a mandatory medical terminology class in the fall semester of the sophomore year for ALL students.

4. Record lectures. We do not allow students to tape lectures in the classroom because we discuss confidential information related to patients and clinical sites. If students want to tape lectures, they need to require special permission from the University.

5. Participate in study groups. I strongly encourage my students to participate in study groups in the courses that I teach.

6. Ask faculty to provide more time to complete tests or other assignments. I feel this is preferential treatment and this would not be fair to other students. If students want additional time to complete an exam, they must require special permission from the University.

I felt these suggestions from this article were helpful, and I plan to implement these curriculum changes in the courses that I teach.

References

Amaro, D., Abriam-Yago, K., Yoder, M. (2006). Perceived barriers for ethnically diverse students in nursing programs. Journal of Nursing Education, 45 (7), 247- 254.

November 5th to 11th, 2007

In the past two years, our NCLEX pass rate has decreased, and we have made several changes in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. Recently, one curriculum change that our department has made was to make the standardized nursing exams count towards the student’s course grade. Each semester, students are required to take standardized exams in each nursing course, for example, OB, PEDS, medical-surgical nursing, psychiatric nursing, and pharmacology. The standardized exams are written by ERI world.

In previous years, students would not study for these standardized exams because they did not count toward their grade, and the scores were below average.Now, each standardizes exam counts 5% toward the student’s grade. If the student passes it on the first attempt, he/she will earn 5 points, on the second attempts 3 points, and third attempt 1 point. If the student does not pass on the third attempt, he/she will receive zero points. Now, the students take these exams very seriously, and they study hard for them. I teach OB, and I have an in class review for this exam. In addition, students can log onto ERI world and download review sessions to their pod cast and take practice quizzes.

There are a few faculty member who thought this policy seems too harsh, but I have seen a huge improvement in the amount of studying that the students are doing to prepare for this exam. I feel the more students study for a course the better, and hopefully this change in our curriculum will help our NCLEX results return to where they were two years ago.

October 29th to November 4th, 2007

Hooks (1994) recommends that faculty build community in the classroom by recognizing the value of each individual voice through journaling. Our nursing students are required to keep a journal in their Fundamentals clinical. I have found that the students tend to list the activities that they completed in clinical. After taking this class, I realized the purpose of journaling is to promote critical thinking. Now, I have higher expectations with my students when they submit their journals. Instead of simply telling me the activities that they completed in clinical, I ask them to write about how they are applying what they are learning in the classroom to the clinical setting. I also have them identify their strengths and weakness and how they plan to improve on their weaknesses. After I have told the students my expectations, I have found that the quality of their journals has improved, and they have been much more enjoyable for me to read.

I like the idea how Dr. Anderson allows us to create a blog to complete our journal, and I used a similar idea with my Fundamental students. I created a discussion board on WEB CT for each student, and the only person who can see their journal is myself and the student. I did not have them create a blog because I was worried that some of them may have technical difficulties, and I was concerned that private information would be posted on the web. With online journals, I don’t have to worry about loosing them, and I am able to provide more timely feedback. Finally, if there is a topic that was not discussed in class, journaling is an excellent method to learn more about the topic individually.

Since I found journaling a valuable learning experience in this class, I decided to make it an assignment for the Multicultural class that I am creating. I plan to have the students create a blog, and they will be required to write a weekly journal entry about any topic related to Multicultural nursing. Through this class, I have now view journaling in a totally different light, and it is an excellent learning experience.

References

Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Rutledge.