September 19, 2018

New NCLEX-RN will need new ways to teach nursing

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing is working on the next generation of the NCLEX-RN exam. The key takeaway for nurse educators is that we must be giving more emphasis to clinical judgment (CJ) in our teaching.

There are two main parts to these changes. The first is a refinement in the description of clinical judgment. The second change is the way the NCLEX exam will evaluate candidates' abilities in each area of clinical judgment.

For faculty this means we will need to reexamine how we teach. Are we using techniques that will promote learning of clinical judgment? Are we clinging to old ideas that are not helping students learn clinical judgment? Does our curriculum help students become independently thinking nurses?

The next generation NCLEX-RN (or NGN) is being designed so that test-taking tricks should not help the candidate pass. Nursing students should have learned CJ well enough to apply it to the exam.

In upcoming posts I will discuss how the "new" steps of CJ look suspiciously like the old steps you are already used to using in clinical practice.

May 22, 2018

Retiring from Academia but not Nursing Education

This week marks the end of 34 continuous years of teaching nursing students. I started in 1984 teaching pediatric clinical at the University of Delaware. In 1997 I spent a few years at Rutgers-Camden. Since 2001 I have been teaching pediatric nursing, nursing informatics, and assorted nursing topics at West Chester University.

I have decided it is time to explore some other opportunities related to nursing education. I am looking forward to consulting, writing, doing online teaching, and keeping my nursing practice going.

I deleted all my old posts as I was too busy to keep up with this blog. I will try to be better at regular postings now.

Thanks for looking in. Let me know if there are any particular topic or opinions you want to discuss.