Teaching Nursing Aesthetically

[scribblerpnp]

OK. I went to a conference not too long ago that got me really jazzed up about aesthetics and teaching. So I'm looking for some ideas! Has anyone out there ever used art and literature in teaching nursing courses and clinicals? How did you do it? What did you use?

For example, one of the presenters at the conferece had each student in a clinical group take a patient and then find a corresponding piece of literature (prose, poetry, etc) and a work of art that showed who that patient was. And the student presented it to the class and stated WHY they chose what they chose. I thought this was great as it made the students look at the pt as a person rather than a disease process.

Another instructor used dance to teach EKG's. She tapdanced the rythms out for her class!

This idea is new to me and very interesting. Anybody willing to share their bright ideas?

[cholli]

I give an assignment where the students create a metaphor describing their progress in the nursing program thus far- it is fun to see what they come up with

[llg, PhD, RN]

I do staff development am in a peds/neonatal environment and I often use well-known children's books to reinforce content. For example, I once used "The Wizard of OZ" as a theme for a conference presentation on the experience of parents experiencing the transport of their neonate to a teriary care center.

In fact, my whole department often uses themes taken from entertainment media and/or artistic themes to reinforce course content. It helps people to relate to it, to put the pieces together into an integrated whole they can relate to and remember easily.

[scribblerpnp]

Oh, I LOVE to read kids books in my class too! I'm a peds nurse and a children's literature fanatic, so I am always finding ways to bring the two together. Especially when going over growth and development. The students sure do remember the picture books we read!

And I like the Wizard of Oz analogy. That is a wonderful idea!

Anyone else out there with some more great ideas? I really think those out of the ordinary lecture experiences help with remembering the material.