The purpose of this conversation is to set the stage to develop nursing curriculum models that address strong partnerships between and education. We will examine underlying assumptions and mental models of nursing education in light of current models. New ideas and innovative strategies will be generated will be generated as we lay the foundation for rethinking and reshaping the undergraduate and graduate nursing curriculum.

2:30-3:00 BREAK -- POSTER FORUM/EXHIBITS

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T6
"A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT FOR PROFESSIONAL ROLE ACQUISITION"

The project purpose was to implement an innovative teaching/learning strategy that promotes decision-making and critical thinking abilities of nursing students in the clinical environment and demonstrates acquisition of key behaviors that ensure professional role-based competencies necessary for RN entry level safe practice.
A need to transform clinical education became apparent as faculty faced a shortage of clinical acute-care placement sites. Following a faculty development workshop presentation (January 2007) of the Clinical Application Portfolio (CAP®) by Dr. Linda Caputi, implementation of the CAP® in a skilled nursing facility offered anecdotal support that this teaching strategy fostered the development of students' assessment, organization, prioritization, potential complication alert, and patient education in any care environment.. Round table discussion of clinical education innovation at the WIN conference (April 2007) sparked collaborative interest in evaluating the CAP® activities in conjunction with professional role development using a data-driven tool for outcome evaluation (O'Rourke, 2007). Teaching critical thinking in nursing education has historically focused on students preparing a lengthy written care plan for selected patients and using that plan to guide performance of clinical activities (Caputi, 2006). According to Caputi, "There is no evidence in the nursing education research to validate that this teaching strategy teaches students to think." Acquisition of professional role behaviors that shifts emphasis from performing tasks to engaging in role based thinking and decision making in relation to skills and tasks were viewed as key objectives for clinical education (O'Rourke, 2006) (O'Rourke and White, June 2007, October 2007). Thus tackling the challenge of building professional role capacity required implementation of a collaborative and fresh approach to clinical education with an evaluation method to assure professional role development outcomes.
The O'Rourke Program™ and Professional Role Development Guide™ (PRDG) offered a proven model of teaching and reinforcing professional role behaviors and included formative and summative evaluation of individual and aggregate data using the O'Rourke PRDG™ for a select group of students offers evidence of specific professional role behavior competencies achieved. Use of the O'Rourke Professional Role-Based Program™ for clinical education together with application of CAP® activities is seen as an innovative and effective way to enhance the clinical experience of students in varied clinical settings. As a teaching strategy, this approach provides increased instructor time for supervision of student learning in the clinical setting and formative one-to-one evaluative feedback. The results of this teaching learning strategy will be used to further refine this collaborative transformation of clinical education to re-establish professional role competence and assure patient safety.

T7
"CLINICAL FROM THE STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE"

While skilled clinicians, many nursing faculty have not been educated in teaching methodology and rely on their own past learning experiences to direct their teaching. Just as there have been phenomenal advances in science and technology that have greatly changed the dynamics of nursing practice, there have been tremendous paradigm shifts in teaching/ learning. Teaching/learning research has provided the impetus toward student-centered engagement and evidence-based teaching practice. In addition to cultural and generational differences in today's student population, we now know more about actual brain function which greatly influences how students think and learn.
Clinical learning experiences provide a hands-on learning experience replete with emotional, psychomotor and cognitive learning opportunities. Clinical learning experiences provide an added stress, compared to traditional classroom learning experiences, in that the learning takes place in a real world, often hectic, health care environment. There is considerable unpredictability in both the situations of learning and students' responses to them. While it is known that there are dynamic changes in the health care setting and in teaching methodology in a classroom setting, there is little research regarding student adaptation to teaching/learning in today's clinical environment. The first step in maximizing teaching/learning in the clinical environment is to gain perspective from the students themselves. This presentation will focus on the findings of a phenomenological study conducted from 2006-2007. Based on these findings, activities that will maximize student engagement in clinical learning will be offered and discussed.

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T8

"A PLAN FOR DEPARTURE: GIVING QUALITY END OF LIFE CARE"

Health care providers need to be informed on how to provide quality end of life care for the older adult, including end of life planning, pain, symptom management as essential components of nursing practice. Students do not often have the opportunity to become proficient at end of life care prior to becoming a nurse. During the clinical portion of a nursing student's education, students may not have the opportunity to be involved in the care of a dying patient. This issue can be addressed in a simulation lab. The nursing students in Health Alteration in Older Adult at Pittsburg State University have a two hour block of time focusing on end of life care.
The students are divided into groups of ten. The first group reports to simulation lab while the rest interact with hospice speakers in the classroom. The simulation program begins using Medi Man set up as a patient dying of cancer. The nursing instructor acts as the facilitator, a second staff member as the computer operator and a third as the patient's family member is preferred. The students were given the patient's history to simulate nursing shift report. The students were expected in the first stage to assess and communicate with the patient. The patient simulator's condition progressively worsened until dying. The students were assisted to meet the patient and family needs through the dying process. The student was expected to manage the patient's pain and provide supportive palliative care.

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T9
" THE ‘FUNDAMENTALS’ OF EVIDENCE-BASED NURSING PRACTICE:
TEACHING NOVICE STUDENTS TO ‘THINK LIKE A NURSE!’"

The concept of evidence-based practice is the integration of "individual clinical expertise with the best available clinical evidence from systematic research." Evidence-based practice is becoming the standard in nursing and is a critical element for all hospitals seeking Magnet and specialty certifications. Hospitals will soon be seeking out graduates with the knowledge and skills to apply evidence-based nursing (EBN) care to their practice settings.
Nursing literature about the application of evidence-based practice in education is growing, but there is little guidance provided that assists the nurse educator in developing strategies for teaching evidence-based practice to novice nursing students. With healthcare knowledge expanding at an exponential rate, it is imperative that nursing educators understand evidence-based nursing and begin to incorporate it into our initial nursing courses.
This presentation will describe a systematic method used to incorporate evidence-based practice into a nursing curriculum, starting with the first clinical nursing course. Examples will be provided of methods nurse educators can use to design learning opportunities for novice nursing students that stimulate critical thinking about the provision of quality nursing care.

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T10
"MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF IMPAIRED NURSING STUDENTS"

Nursing faculty is committed to creating a safe learning environment and to protecting the health and safety of our clients. Unfortunately, we may have students in our classrooms and clinical settings whose practice is impaired by at-risk behaviors such as substance abuse and mental illness. Dealing with these conditions is challenging at best, and deadly at worst. In many cases, faculty members are unsure of their ability to recognize signs and symptoms of impairment since the behaviors may be subtle and may take several semesters for patterns to become evident. Bugle, Jackson, Kornegay, and Rives (2003) found that nearly half of faculty (49.7%) is not sure of the ability to recognize the signs and symptoms of impairment. As the NCSBN (2001) reminds us, "Helping the impaired nurse is difficult, but not impossible. The choices for action are varied. The only choice that is clearly wrong is to do nothing."
While dealing with impaired nursing students may be challenging, students with these conditions require early and swift identification, consultation, and possible referral to protect the student and to safeguard the public.
This interactive, practical, hands-on workshop addresses these issues through the use of spirited dialog and collaborative application of case studies.

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T11
"USING TECHNOLOGY TO EMPHASIZE NON-TECHNICAL SKILLS"

High fidelity simulation is making waves in medical schools nationwide. Many nursing schools have also recently adopted this pedagogy. What about practicing acute care nurses?
Learning how to handle high-risk situations is a critical competency for all RNs, but when those critical situations occur on an infrequent basis initial training and ongoing experience is difficult to obtain. By creating scenarios, based on needs assessments of high-risk low volume situations, we can simulate almost anything that nurses need to learn or practice. When nurses practice with a human simulator, they are free to make mistakes and learn from them. They will see the consequences of their actions and then figure out what to do to correct it - all without causing any harm or risk to a patient. The goal is to create a learning experience that they will remember- helping them avoid this mistake in the future when caring for real people.
Non-technical skills are incorporated into the scenarios, such as communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills allowing learners to use humanistic and systematic approaches to care for their patients without simply focusing on tasks. Practicing teamwork and communication in these controlled situations helps participants to apply concepts to their work environment, rather than just "knowing" the concept.
Regardless of the patient situation being simulated, weaving in communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills enhances practice and learning beyond technical skills and into practical experiences that can develop into excellent professional interactions.

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T12
NETWORKING SESSIONS”

a. Classroom issues (over 50): discipline, lose personal touch, keeping student’s attention, plagiarism
b. Integrating EPB into the curriculum, where to go for best reliable research, etc
c. Integrating simulation into the classroom
d. Tips for new faculty –survival, clinical, and classroom
e. Tips for surviving/succeeding in PhD program, to include different routes
f. Clinical placement issues-expectation, recruiting, preparation education

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