Teaching Technology Philosophy
As a nurse educator for students who are working toward a Bachelor Science in Nursing (BSN) degree with an emphasis on mental health, my goal is to help students build the knowledge and skills they need for success in the program and throughout their careers. Not only is it my responsibility to introduce students to the fundamental principles of nursing practice, but I also strive to help them develop the problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking skills that mental health nurses need in today’s complex healthcare environment. I believe I can utilize technology in my teaching practice to support the achievement of these goals.
Today’s technology provides a wide range of platforms for communication, so I intend use it to facilitate thoughtful discussions among my students. Through direct engagement with each other, students can improve their conceptual understandings and grapple with complex issues in mental health nursing. Although traditional in-class discussions support this kind of student engagement, technology-based tools like online discussion boards make it possible to overcome some of the barriers associated with in-class discussions. For instance, in content-heavy courses, I often face significant time constraints. Online discussion makes it possible to promote conversation without cutting into essential lecture time (Hudson, 2014). It also meets the needs of students with diverse learning styles, such as those who avoid public speaking.
I also intend to use technology to train aspiring nurses to gather and evaluate relevant nursing information that can support evidence-based practice. Because the field of mental health nursing is highly dynamic, nurses need to have the skills to search the scholarly literature for the latest research (Majid et al., 2011). They also need to be able to evaluate the quality of sources. By integrating the use of online nursing literature databases into my curriculum, I can prepare aspiring nurses to stay abreast with the latest research throughout their careers.
References
Hudson, K.A. (2014). Teaching nursing concepts through an online discussion board. Journal of Nursing Education, 53(9), 531-6.
Majid, S., Foo, S., Luyt, B., Zhang, X., Theng, Y.L., Chang, Y.K., & Mokhtar, I.A. (2011). Adopting evidence-based practice in clinical decision making: Nurses’ perceptions, knowledge, and barriers. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 99(3), 229-36.