Teaching Project Plans

This semester I am doing my teaching practicum with a Critical Care Course Instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). The course is called Nursing of Adults with Complex needs, and is a course for the Senior I students in the BSN nursing program at UTA.
I have several different teaching opportunities this semester. My main teaching project involves giving a class lecture on Nursing Care of the Stroke Patient. I chose to give this lecture because my nursing background is in Critical Care, but I am currently working as a Nurse Liaison for a Rehabilitation Hospital that focuses on patients who have had strokes and other brain injuries. I feel that my experience in working with these patients both in the ICU and in the rehab setting will help me in teaching the BSN nursing students about this topic.

An interesting aspect of this teaching project is that it will involve the use of technology for the benefit of the UTA nursing students that are part of the “Learn Group”. The Learn Group is a group of UTA nursing students who will pursue their BSN via a distance learning program. Each of the lectures given to the nursing students that are part of the traditional BSN program are video-taped and uploaded for the distance learning students to view online.

UTA offers a unique clinical experience for their students because they are one of three institutions in the country that has a Smart Hospital™. “The Smart Hospital™ is a simulated hospital environment complete with state-of-the-science equipment and furnishings. In this facility, nursing students interact with and provide care to a full array of simulated patients who occupy the Emergency Room, ICU, Labor & Delivery (LDRP) suites, pediatric unit, Neo-Natal ICU, adult medical /surgical beds and the large team training resuscitation room. The students learn utilizing simulation technology including: full body interactive patient simulators (like SimMan® and SimBaby™), computerized scenario-based programs and individual trainers for specific skills like starting IV's.” (UTA School of Nursing, 2009)

“The "patients" who populate the Smart Hospital™ are life-sized computerized manikins that actually interact with the learners. Patients include infants, children, adults and even a mother in labor who goes through the labor process and delivers a newborn. Some manikins are static (not interactive) but others are interactive and responsive - they can speak and breathe, have heart sounds and lung sounds, and can progress through the various stages of numerous clinical states from birth through death. In addition, (UTA has) specially trained actors who can serve as patients or family members in clinical teaching scenes. In each clinical scenario, the students are exposed to situations and changes in patient conditions, both subtle and obvious, that they will experience in actual practice. With repeated exposure to these situations, students develop a deeper understanding of clinical conditions and become more adept at critical and clinical thinking. With this foundation, (UTA’s) students move more quickly from novice to expert and in so doing enhance the quality of patient care they provide”. (UTA School of Nursing, 2009)

Among the other teaching opportunities that I will participate in include assisting the course instructor in teaching and reviewing skills for the BSN nursing students in their Pre-Clinical Lab days. The Lab days consist of two eight-hour days at the school and in the Smart Hospital. I am looking forward to all of the teaching experience that I will gain this semester!

~cindy

References:
UTA School of Nursing, (2009). Simulation in nursing education: UT Arlington. Retrieved February 15, 2009, from UT Arlington School of Nursing Web site: http://www.uta.edu/nursing/simulation/smart_hospital.php