Date of Award

11-23-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Copyright Status, No Creative Commons License

All Rights Reserved

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Nursing

Department

Nursing

Abstract

Educating student nurses in the present environment requires professors to stay current with new methodologies as well as innovations in technology. The question is how to address both the impact of technology and the skills of clinical reasoning, and keep the students involved in the material. If there can be integration of each aspect through the use of technology-enhanced learning activities on the internet and preparation to approach the issue, then perhaps this can increase success. This is a quasi-experimental intervention study that explored the impact of a case study blogging assignment on the engagement of students enrolled in a fundamental nursing course. A pre-test/post-test design, using the Adapted Engaged Learning Index as the instrument, was conducted over an eight week period. A total of 153 students received a pre-test to measure engagement. The students were then divided into control and intervention classes. A post-test was administered after 5 pre-class blogging assignments had been completed. The results indicated there was no significant differences between the pre and post-tests for either the intervention group (p = .118) or the control group (p = .110), although the faculty identified an increased ability to participate in class and clinically reason. The study introduced the use of technology to encourage student preparation prior to class which may lead to increased participation and knowledge integration. The findings led to the recommendation that further studies should be conducted to identify technology-enhanced educational interventions that increase student engagement. These would include using the full semester in a course that only iii has one component, increasing orientation of the students to blogging in the learning management system, and expanding to multiple collegiate sites to increase generalizability. It is imperative that educators engage nursing students in learning and facilitate their mastering of clinical reasoning skills. Nurses need to be proficient in clinical reasoning as their professions calls for the ability to make timely and effective decisions. Through creative and innovative educational strategies, students will start to make the connections necessary to develop this mindset. This research explored the importance using technology enhanced educational adjuncts to assist in the transformation of nursing education and hence, to prepare future professionals.

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