question for nursing faculty

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Hello educators,

Can you give me some insight into the value of some student assignments I have recently seen discussed here at Allnurses? I seem to be encountering a surge of posts in which students describe being assigned to "research" a topic using social media.

These have included a directive to find a nurse in another country and Skype/video chat about a topic; and instructions to post a "debate topic" and then return to class with whatever response was garnered on a social media site.

I confess I am unable to figure out the objectives of these assignments. Do you utilize such assignments in your classes? Are they supplemented by assignments which require the use of published, peer-reviewed scholarly research? If you want your students to probe "how nurses feel/react/manage" regarding a certain topic, do you encourage them to discuss the topic with nurses with whom they have contact at their clinical sites?

Are these assignments outliers that I'm seeing because AN is a social media site? Any perspective you can offer is much appreciated.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I haven't used social media for assignments, but can see the value in it. People are online alot. Students use social media alot. I think to do something within social media would be of benefit since students are in it anyway.

Many schools use Facebook and SecondLife for assignments. One school I know actually has some classes on SecondLife.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I don't get it either.....but it's the nature of the beast. If you are getting your degree online so are the assignments.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Not necessarily, Esme ... I completed my BSN online, with a large state university. While we certainly had to be creative with technology (like videotaping an exam of a volunteer "patient" for a health assessment class), I cannot think of one class or one professor who would have accepted "data" gathered from an anonymous social media site as acceptable for an assignment.

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

certainly, i have participated and often wondered what became of my assistance, did it helped or did they picked the best answer. in any case i hope the assignment is legit~

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Years ago, I used AN for an assignment with my RN-BSN course. I was to interview a nurse in another country and had no other means to locate one. A nurse from Australia was kind enough to help me in my plight (when I asked for assistance here on AN) and I was able to complete the assignment in a timely manner. I actually did learn a few things from this assignment (even though the interaction was entirely online and not face-to-face), especially regarding the different professional levels of nurses (and their distinctions) in Australia.

[guest563546]

I am not an educator, but I can see the merit in these exercises. It seems every aspect of my life can somehow be tied to the internet. Sad but true. I can check my grades online, and those of my children as well. I constantly look up recipes, news, and research for school projects. I communicate with my family via FB and email. I've read about MD's who Skype with their peers about difficult diagnoses and other things they might need insight with. Social media is just huge right now and it doesn't look like it'll be going away any time soon. Possibly those instructors are preparing their students for the future of our field. And while I would loathe an assignment like that, sometimes being out of our comfort zone can be beneficial.

[Clovery]

I'm a nursing student, but I've never had an assignment like this and I don't think any are on the horizon before I graduate.

However, last semester I had to do a paper/presentation on childhood vaccinations for peds and as part of my research I posted a thread on a "mommy forum" asking why parents choose to refuse or delay vaccinations for their children. It wasn't required for my assignment, and I certainly couldn't cite anything that was said there, but I did find it helpful to learn the reasons and look at the links some of the mothers provided. It's interesting where they are getting their information, and how much misinformation is out there. With regard to patient education, it was useful to learn where the "non-vaccinators" are coming from. From this research, I was able to convey to my class in my presentation, that this population is usually very knowledgeable and well-versed in the subject of vaccines. So when providing patient education to these people, the nurse also needs to be informed and ready with current research from reputable sources. The general sentiment of these moms is that they believe they know more than the doctors & nurses about the vaccines, so if all you do is hand them a fact sheet from the CDC, they're just going to blow you off.

As far as skype video interviews go, maybe this is to prepare students for the future, where job interviews may initially be conducted this way. My brother-in-law was recently interviewing for a position (not nursing), and they did a few web-video interviews before flying him out to interview him in person. Also, with more online degree programs available, it might be preparing students for using web "tools" that these programs likely utilize in place of face-to-face classroom time.

My fundamentals course had a class message board, where our instructor would post a topic each week and we were required to respond with our opinion. I really enjoyed that, because it was an opportunity to think about issues and debate with classmates, while using proper English and being civil. We never get the chance for this kind of thing in lecture because we're always too busy trying to cover all the material. Unfortunately, none of my instructors after fundamentals incorporated a message board.

[ChristinP]

I'm taking classes online and have never been asked to use a social media website to interview another person or collect information. I have however done in person interviews.

[CDEWannaBe]

These assignments are good in theory, but doubt there's much learned from them.

I've appreciated teachers who use the information available online to further student knowledge, like my Physiology professor who has used great YouTube videos to teach about action potentials and other neurology concepts.

Another of her assignments I found useful was to write a synopsis of 6 physiology related articles from www.ScienceDaily.com. The information was interesting and the site is great to get a quick overview of published research.

Also, I'm a longtime type 1 diabetic and see lots of posts on diabetes message boards from students assigned to get first hand info about diabetes. But students usually don't have personal interest and aren't knowledgeable enough to ask questions that would get them any useful information. Again, a good idea in theory but a waste of the students' and respondants' time.