My best advice for you is to make sure you have a mentor or preceptor at the school. Make sure that your mentor is someone you can trust, someone with integrity. (unfortunately, horizontal violence is alive and well among nursing faculty, so choose your confidants and friends wisely. Stay out of interpersonal conflicts and politics.)
Hopefully the instructors who preceded you left copies of their lecture notes, etc. Some are more thorough than others. It is very difficult (but not impossible ) creating lectures purely from scratch.
Research your lecture material thoroughly, until it becomes part of you and you feel a passion for that subject. As you lecture, that enthusiasm will shine through and spark interest in the students. There is great virtue in simplicity (kiss, stay on target and to the point as possible). Less is more. Try not to drown the students with too much information. I know, I know. This is nearly impossible with ADN and BSN curricula, but try anyway LOL always let your students know what are the most important points of your lecture as you are lecturing.
I give out handouts. Caution: don't give out too many (as I did my first year of teaching and "drowned" my students). Remember the axiom: less is more. Simple handouts with the main points of your lecture save time--you will be able to get more bang for your buck, as time is very scarce with lecturing (so much information, so little time). Good handouts will enable the students to write less and concentrate on what you are saying more. I also encourage my students to use tape recorders. That way they aren't so frantic to catch my every word. If your nursing school has a web site, use it to your students' advantage. Post your lecture notes and study guides there. Your students will appreciate the convenience. I try to post my lecture notes early so the students have a chance to read my notes ahead of time.
Integrate pertinent NCLEX-type questions as you lecture. Especially after more important subjects are covered, throw out a question or two. This helps the students process the material better, and also helps with their test-taking skills.
If a study guide is included with your text book, refer to it often and have the students use it (don't recreate the wheel). If not, create a simple one yourself. The students really appreciate having them.
Writing exam questions is an art. It takes time to develop this skill. Nursing test questions are modeled after the NCLEX and are "higher order." most teachers and students (!) aren't accustomed to this type of testing at first. Instead of a simple knowledge question, you are requiring your students to think critically (analyze, evaluate, prioritize), which is so essential to safe nursing practice. All nursing textbooks come with a test bank. I would use these questions first. After awhile, you will learn to create your own. Caution: make sure you choose your test questions before you lecture, so that your lecture will include this material!
Hope this little bit of advice helps. Any other more "seasoned" veterans feel free to post here. I welcome your input.
I recently joined the faculty of a private college's ADN program. I have a BSN, and I am working on my master's degree. In my state, only Master's prepared nurses may teach RN students. So I am teaching in other programs to get my feet wet, and running the nursing laboratory with our simulated manikins (we have 6). I also arrange all the clinicals for our students. We have 40 new students every April and October. The program is 21 months long.
My question is - What do other states allow in the clinical setting in regards to the presence of a faculty MSN or faculty BSN or just the facility's staff nurse? There is a big shortage of MSNs willing to teach, and it is really difficult to get enough to cover the clinicals. My state says BSN faculty can be in clinicals only if an MSN is present. An additional problem is that many MSN's do not have recent experience in the clinical setting. They have been in administration and advanced practice. (I had to show my boss how to flush a PICC before she took the students to clinical.)
Also - how do you do clinicals for community health nursing? We have a day cohort and a night cohort, and I can't find anything open where we can send our students at night for community nursing. Does your program require clinicals in community nursing? How many hours? Does the MSN have to be there at every clinical? Does the student just follow the staff nurse without an educator present? Does your community nursing course just have a project such as a windshield survey of the community and a paper?
Our program is new - not yet a year old, and other local schools are a bit territorial about sharing their curricula.
I love teaching, and this is where I always wanted to be. I am glad to find somewhere to share.
I teach in a LPN program in Illinois. We have a community nursing course that requires 41 hours of course work which is a mix of clinical, seminars, group work, and independent work. We allow students to go into community settings if there is an RN in the building but it is only observation. The only time students can do tasks or procedures is with designated faculty. We are always looking for new experiences but here are a few examples: we have assigned groups that developed a disaster preparedness kit for a particular type of family (2 adults with a newborn, or teen that is blind and with physical disabilities, pets, Alzheimer's parent, etc.) They put together the kits and turned in a typed paper of the contents and why items were added to accommodate the special needs. Kits will be displayed for the college to view. We are also doing group community assessments with presentations to be done later in the semester. We work alot of the local schools and do physicals including VS height, weight. We assist with dissections in grade schools that prepare students for working with kids of different ages and patient education strategies. We have a discussion board with a new question posted each month that the students must respond to regarding some community issues. We do BP clinics at the college or in the community. Last year the students planned a health fair for girl scouts in our region in conjuction with the girl scout groups. The students had small groups about topics of interest, nutrition, our nursing program, exercise, and worked with other programs such as cosmotology and cardiac ultrasound, and dental. Some is observation such as spending several hours with a nurse in a nursing home pass meds, do treatments, observe paperwork, etc. As you can see alot of variety. It's alot of work putting the course together and I team teach with another faculty. We have 70 students every year to schedule and monitor. Any other questions I'd be glad to help.
We are also struggling with the ratio of 10 students to 1 instructor, which is the recommended ration, but also not written. Since we are seeking accreditation, my boss is unwilling to go against what she has been told.
What type of accreditation? NLN? My school is seeking it too, and I was told as long as I am enrolled, that is good enough. It is an ADN program, tho.
We have a 10 to 1 max ratio. I believe is a rule/law. Not sure if it state mandated or what. One school I teach at is always maxed out at 10. The other school tries to make the groups smaller (right now, total of 9, with 2 or three leaving the group each day to go to Ob and OR).
Thank you VickieRN for all the good info and helpful tips. I am a new nurse educator and wish I would have found your site before I started last Sept. I still find myself learning new ways to teach and strategize. I agree with you on limiting handouts. I have found that if you give them too much they expect to have all their answers to their questions adressed in the handouts and do not research to their fullest potential. I also understand that a nurse educator can get burned out if they dont learn to limit themselves. When I first began, I encouraged students to visit me on breaks and call me at home with questions and since I teach all day and have no scheduled office hours I found that I was getting exhausted and had little time for my family or grading papers. I am learning how to juggle things now.
Thanks to all for the wonderful tips. As a new educator, do you have anything to share on how to present a lesson on myocardial infarction to LPN students?
I am currently working on setting up a program for LPN's. I am in phase one and for the most part finding good community support even thoug other programs exost in the area. I received a letter from one of the larger hospitals that we would only be able to get clinical experience at night or on weekends. This will certainly be a problem for most students with jobs and families. I am wondering how to continue with this program if they will not be offered the experiences they need. I would appreciate any suggestions or help any one has to offer with completing my proposals to the state and with working with the local clinical sites.
Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
I am currently working on setting up a program for LPN's. I am in phase one and for the most part finding good community support even thoug other programs exost in the area. I received a letter from one of the larger hospitals that we would only be able to get clinical experience at night or on weekends. This will certainly be a problem for most students with jobs and families. I am wondering how to continue with this program if they will not be offered the experiences they need. I would appreciate any suggestions or help any one has to offer with completing my proposals to the state and with working with the local clinical sites.
Have you approached some of the smaller or out-of-the-way community hospitals in your area? One of the best hospitals we have for a clinical site (very student friendly with ABUNDANT learning opportunities) is a tiny rural facility. Also, the skilled floors in nursing homes often offer as much learning opportunities (if not more) than units in an acute care facility. Hope you have great success in getting your program off and running :)
Hi. I am new to this forum and new to teaching. I have been hired to teach nursing students in a tech college. I am going to be assigned a mentor. I have met several of the faculty and most of them seem really nice. I am teaching in a rural area so there is only a hand full of nursing instructors. I am working on my masters degree in nursing education so I am going to have my hands full this fall. I was wondering if those of you who have been teaching if you could tell me the names of some good nursing mnemonic books that you may have used. I have enjoyed reading your other posts. Thank you. :) :)
Thank You ALL for being here. As a new nurse educator, I feel overwhelmed at times and have just discovered this wonderful site. I am very happy to know there are so many out there I can look to for help and support. Great job on all the above, it's a really big help when just starting out!
This site has many many student acitivities and resources for the instructor. Try the assessments...you move the mouse over the patient and collect data...then you chart.....there is a comparison to the charting also...very cool. http://freenursetutor.com
jrzbrd
7 Posts
I teach in a LPN program in Illinois. We have a community nursing course that requires 41 hours of course work which is a mix of clinical, seminars, group work, and independent work. We allow students to go into community settings if there is an RN in the building but it is only observation. The only time students can do tasks or procedures is with designated faculty. We are always looking for new experiences but here are a few examples: we have assigned groups that developed a disaster preparedness kit for a particular type of family (2 adults with a newborn, or teen that is blind and with physical disabilities, pets, Alzheimer's parent, etc.) They put together the kits and turned in a typed paper of the contents and why items were added to accommodate the special needs. Kits will be displayed for the college to view. We are also doing group community assessments with presentations to be done later in the semester. We work alot of the local schools and do physicals including VS height, weight. We assist with dissections in grade schools that prepare students for working with kids of different ages and patient education strategies. We have a discussion board with a new question posted each month that the students must respond to regarding some community issues. We do BP clinics at the college or in the community. Last year the students planned a health fair for girl scouts in our region in conjuction with the girl scout groups. The students had small groups about topics of interest, nutrition, our nursing program, exercise, and worked with other programs such as cosmotology and cardiac ultrasound, and dental. Some is observation such as spending several hours with a nurse in a nursing home pass meds, do treatments, observe paperwork, etc. As you can see alot of variety. It's alot of work putting the course together and I team teach with another faculty. We have 70 students every year to schedule and monitor. Any other questions I'd be glad to help.