By Cynthia “Cindy” Clark, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, psychiatric nurse/therapist, expert on fostering civility and healthy workplaces, and consultant for ATI Nursing Education.
Friday’s opening plenary session was preceded with remarks from Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, chief executive officer of the National League for Nursing. (NERC 2016 is co-sponsored by the National League for Nursing and the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.) Highlighting the vision and mission of the two organizations, Malone inspired the crowd with her motivational message and passion for nursing education and research.
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| Beverly Malone |
I had the good fortune to meet David B. Daniel, PhD, professor of psychology at James Madison University and speaker for the opening plenary, just before he delivered his inspiring and informative keynote address. I was immediately struck by his likeable personality, humor, wit, and engaging style. Those characteristics showed through as he took the stage and inspired a room filled with nurse educators and scholars eager to hear his address titled, “What evidence is evidence to guide quality teaching in nursing?”
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| David Daniel |
Focusing on the intricacies of using research and evidence and applying them to “almost real life,” Daniel stressed the need for an integrative approach to the science of learning. Highlighting the disconnect between how we teach and what we teach—and how that contrasts with student priorities and preferences—he encouraged the audience to incorporate distributive practice in their teaching, which is to break course content into small parts and reinforce them over an extended period of time.
Many of today’s students, observed Daniel, are more focused on obtaining a degree and securing a job than on learning. They hope college will be fast, easy, and convenient and that it will lead to their desired result, which is to graduate and move into the workplace. Most teachers, on the other hand, are interested in helping students learn. The challenge, according to Daniel? “Give ‘em peas, and make it taste like ice cream.” Create experiences that promote learning, immersion in content, and ability to transfer learning into multiple settings.
We also learned that teaching is contextual, that there is no such thing as best practices in teaching. Rather than best practices, said Daniel, every practitioner—teacher—needs to apply what he calls promising principles into their learning environments. The most we will ever get from research, suggested Daniel, is an hypothesis for practice: We must try interventions and evaluate them on their merit and effectiveness.
To do that, Daniel offered a teaching model he has created. Based on the drug approval process used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it includes the following:
1) Examine bench work in medicine and nursing.
2) Develop a promising principle for teaching.
3) Prove efficacy of promising principle using a target student population in a representative, but controlled, context.
4) Design the promising principle for general use and fidelity for independent teacher use.
5) Try the intervention in other representative contexts.
6) Evaluate the intervention and its context using a cost-benefit analysis process.
7) Disseminate the results.
8) Monitor the intervention and its effectiveness over time.
The focus of Daniel’s promising-principle approach is on whether or not an intervention works—and in which context(s). A key takeaway from the session was the distributive-practice concept mentioned earlier: Identify a promising principle that encourages teachers to space out and repeat content over time in a strategic way to give student brains time to create and retain learning. In teaching, there is no prescriptive cookbook. Instead, as teachers, we need to capture ingredients and create a recipe—based on science—that works within the contexts of our unique teaching environments.
Following Daniel’s keynote address, attendees reviewed an amazing array of education research posters and roamed the exhibit hall. And who did Yours Truly find exploring the exhibits? Our very own STTI president, Cathy Catrambone, PhD, RN, FAAN!
Nurses and librarians have a lot in common
By Kimberly S. Thompson, MLS, Ruth Lilly e-Repository Manager, Virginia Henderson Global Nursing e-Repository
While interacting with nurses who come to the exhibit area and stop by the Virginia Henderson Global e-Repository table at the Nursing Education Research Conference, I am struck by their passion, enthusiasm, and collegiality. I have found this true of every STTI-hosted—in this case, co-hosted—event I have attended.
When I started my journey with the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International in January 2012 as manager of the Virginia Henderson Global Nursing e-Repository, I had past experience as both an attendee and presenter at such events. In my present role, my perspective as a staff member of an event host has allowed me a deeper glimpse of the inner workings of conferences and the motivations of conference attendees, and I have noticed many similarities between librarians (my chosen profession) and nurses (the profession I now assist). There is the obvious similarity: the majority of members of both professions are female. But it runs much deeper than that. Librarians and nurses are extremely passionate about and proud of their work. For them, it is not only what you do, but what you are. It’s not a job, but a profession.
Both professions require passion and dedication and are not typical 9-to-5 jobs. People who have chosen these careers feel they truly make a difference in peoples’ lives through service to others—librarians by locating and organizing resources, sharing essential knowledge, and assisting people in locating information, and nurses by improving lives of patients and their families through evidence-based practice, research, and patient advocacy. Members of both professions give of themselves to enhance the lives of others, and both are seeking to strengthen their voices and stand out as professionals worthy of consideration and respect.
As I enter into discussions and on-the-go training sessions in the exhibit area, I am proud, as a librarian, to serve the profession of nursing. Here’s to all of those who attend conference events to network, mentor, learn, and grow. I know I am not alone when I say I am looking forward to the next STTI event and the excitement that bubbles up as nurses interact with their colleagues.
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| In the conference exhibit area, Kimberly Thompson answers questions about the Virginia Henderson Global Nursing e-Repository. |
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