Teaching Strategies

NURS FPX 6105 Assessment 3 Teaching Strategies

Teaching strategies are instrumental in delivering the course content to the targeted population of learners. They should be designed with the course outcomes in mind and should be tailored to the needs of the students. Thus, the process of designing the course and the teaching strategies involves determining the content to include, the expected outcomes for the learners, the potential factors that can hinder the effectiveness of learning, and the methods of addressing the hindrances. Consequently, this report details the learning outcomes for the proposed work-life balance course that targets new nurses being oriented to the facility, the teaching strategies that will be appropriate for the course, the barriers to learning and strategies for managing them, and the impact of teaching strategies and the strategies for handling barriers on learners’ motivation.

NURS FPX 6105 Assessment 3 Teaching Strategies

Learning Outcomes

The work-life balance course is created with the objective of helping the new nurses get acquainted with the new work environment and the patients they will serve and equip them with the knowledge to have a satisfactory and enhanced lifestyle despite the stresses that might occur. The assumption behind the objective of the course is that all nurses require coaching or orientation on striking a work-life balance, which is critical to the retention of a healthy and well-balanced workforce (Matsuo et al., 2021). As such, they need to learn and acquire knowledge and skills in understanding their context of work and adopting suitable practices to prevent burnout and stress, which are major contributors to intentions to leave the work environment. 

The objective informs the design of the outcomes of the delivery of the course. By the end of the course, the learner shall have:

  • Understood the benefits of achieving a work-life balance as a practicing nurse in the facility and in all other professional engagements,
  • Recognized the signs of an unbalanced life,
  • Learned about burnout, stress, and other signs of an unbalanced life and how to avoid them,
  • Acquired skills in dealing with diverse patient populations to avoid stress related to relationships with patients,
  • Mastered time management and goal setting,
  • Learned to draw boundaries between work and home,
  • Learned skills for stress management and conflict resolution,
  • And found the most effective work methods in nursing practice.

Appropriate Teaching Strategies

The teaching strategies include the provision of traditional classroom lessons involving lectures and PowerPoint presentations and the use of flipped classrooms. The traditional classroom strategies are effective in conveying the theoretical information that the learners need to have in the process of building their knowledge and skills regarding work-life balance. They are based on the outcome-based education model in which the lesson and curricula are designed to emphasize the elements that learners should understand and adapt to their lives beyond the classroom environment (Tan et al., 2018). In this traditional method, the lectures and presentations are supplemented by student self-evaluation and educator evaluations to ensure that the learners are on course to achieve the expected outcomes. According to Tan et al. (2018), the evaluations should be based on theoretical and clinical knowledge. 

The traditional methods are then supplemented with innovative teaching strategies such as the use of flipped classrooms. According to Pangadaman et al. (2019), flipped classrooms are used to provide learner-centered education and to promote the students’ engagement with an emphasis on self-learning. It can also incorporate team-based learning and the use of role-playing, but the evidence is not clear on the efficacy of mixing the team-based approaches with the learner-centered flipped classroom model in providing effective nursing education. However, according to Tan et al. (2018), nursing competency can further be built through learner-centered approaches that also incorporate role-playing and scenario simulation to get the learners accustomed to the real-life experiences that occur in the workplace environment. Moreover, Pangadman et al. (2019) proposed the incorporation of active learning into nursing education, a process that involves allowing the nurses to apply the knowledge acquired in the classroom directly in their practice settings. Thus, the traditional and innovative teaching strategies can be useful in educating new nurses on work-life balance but need to be tuned to specific learner needs to make them student-centered. 

Managing Barriers to Learning

In a typical classroom setting of either traditional or non-traditional learners, there are various barriers that can hamper the students’ learning processes. According to Mavuso (2020), these barriers include language difficulties, reading and writing challenges, behavioral barriers, individual-specific barriers, and contextual barriers. The contextual barriers could include cultural influences, family backgrounds, and other family complexities, whereas individual-specific barriers include physical challenges, behavioral challenges such as absenteeism and attention-seeking, or motivational challenges that the individual learner might face (Mavuso, 2020). The educator needs to adopt strategies for managing these barriers to ensure the effectiveness of the education plan.

NURS FPX 6105 Assessment 3 Teaching Strategies

Strategies

Mavuso (2020) highlighted various strategies that educators can adopt to manage these barriers that individuals and entire groups in the classroom could face. The first strategy is the design and implementation of an institution-based learner profiling test to identify the learners who might have language and cultural barriers (Mavuso, 2020). From the profiling test, it would be possible to identify the learners who require specialized delivery of the course in a given language and to identify the learners who can speak multiple languages and are able to help other learners or patients to understand the concepts delivered in the classroom. The second strategy is the collaboration with community-based social workers and organizations to alleviate the contextual factors that some learners might face in the classroom environment (Mavuso, 2020). The third strategy is the adoption of a learning style inventory such as Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory to identify learners’ preferences and address the individual-specific barriers that learners could have.

How Strategies Help Overcoming Barriers

The learner profiling strategy could prove effective in identifying potential language barriers for nurses coming from other cultures and speaking English as a foreign language. It could also help the facility identify the special language needs of various learners and enlist the services of interpreters or translators to help in delivering the verbal learning content to the new nurses (Mavuso, 2020). Moreover, the use of the strategy could also come in handy in completing the orientation of new nurses to their respective workstations where they will be interacting with patients with diverse language needs. The second strategy, which involves collaboration with social workers and other community resources, can equip the clinical nurse educator with the resources, skills, and capabilities that can help resolve new nurses’ cultural and family issues that can impede their orientation and learn in the specific facility. Social workers and community-based organizations are equipped with the knowledge and capacity to manage some of the social and psychological issues that learners might encounter when they encounter a new environment (Mavuso, 2020). Mavuso (2020) further explained that their incorporation in the teaching process would also equip the clinical nurse educator with the competency to support learners who have specific learning disabilities. 

NURS FPX 6105 Assessment 3 Teaching Strategies

The third strategy is aimed at resolving individual-specific learning barriers through the use of a learning style inventory. The use of the strategy is based on the fact that a student’s learning style influences their performance and achievement, and can be used to curate a learning strategy that will produce the best outcomes for the student (Shamsuddin & Kaur, 2020). Shamsuddin and Kaur (2020) elaborated that the adoption of learning style inventory is especially significant in blended learning environments in which traditional classroom sessions are combined with non-traditional approaches. From the study, the authors concluded that the use of the inventory can equip the educator with the information they need to design suitable materials according to the mode of learning and capabilities that the learner exhibits (Shamsuddin & Kaur, 2020). It will, therefore, be a useful strategy for designing education sessions that meet each nurse’s individual needs and preferences for receiving lifestyle-oriented lessons.

Impact of Strategies on Motivation

The motivation of students depends on various factors, including intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The strategies for overcoming the barriers to learning in the classroom and the strategies for teaching the learner population can both be useful in maintaining the learners’ motivation. According to Mavuso (2020), the strategies used to address individual learning barriers that students have, such as the use of learning style inventories, can help learners who lack motivation in pursuing knowledge to become engaged in the learning process. According to Saeedi and Parvizy (2019), one of the strategies for maintaining students’ motivation is to conduct workshops or active learning to allow them to apply the theoretical concepts in their immediate working environments. 

The chance to apply the theoretical knowledge in practice is significant in enhancing adult learners’ level of engagement with the course delivery as they appreciate the importance and significance of the lessons delivered. It gives evidence for the positive impact of the use of role-playing, scenario simulation, and other active learning approaches in motivating students. Finally, the strategy of collaborating with social workers and community-based organizations helps in providing social and psychological support to learners, a strategy that helps motivate students (Nettasinghe & Samarasinghe, 2018). The motivation from the collaboration with social workers comes as a result of the support that the learners receive from the educator and the social workers and community resources.

References

Matsuo, M., Suzuki, E., Takayama, Y., Shibata, S., & Sato, K. (2021). Influence of striving for work-life balance and sense of coherence on intention to leave among nurses: A 6-month prospective survey. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 58, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00469580211005192

NURS FPX 6105 Assessment 3 Teaching Strategies

Mavuso, M. (2020). Barriers to learning in diverse classrooms: Teachers’ voices. e-Bangi, 17(3), 187-200.

Nettasinghe, N. A., & Samarasinghe, K. (2018). Psycho-social learning environment from nurse students’ perspective. Psycho-Social Learning Environment from Nurse Students’ Perspective, 6(12), 2707-2714.

Pangandaman, H. K., Boloron, R. P., Lambayong, J. H., Ergas, M. L., Raki-in, R. M., Sadang, S. A.-A., . . . Mukattil, N. P. (2019). Innovative classroom pedagogy in nursing education: A systematic review. International Journal of Health Medicine and Current Research, 4(4), 1543-1549.

Saeedi, M., & Parvizy, S. (2019). Strategies to promote academic motivation in nursing students: A qualitative study. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 8(86), 1-7.

Shamsuddin, N., & Kaur, J. (2020). Students learning style and its effect on blended learning, does it matter? International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 9(1), 195-202.

Tan, K., Chong, M. C., Subramaniam, P., & Ping, W. L. (2018). The effectiveness of outcome-based education on the competencies of nursing students: A systematic review. Nurse Education Today, 64, 180-189.