Writing a Nursing Teaching Plan
There are basic means of writing an education plan and a nursing plan should follow these same characteristics. In most cases, it becomes important because of the life affecting consequences of the training. The teaching plan must get the nurse from present skills to mastery.
Planning
Before even beginning the teaching plan process, the need for the plan needs exploration. A question needs answering. How will patients observe mastery? The planners should articulate how mastery will surface in the work product of nurses. The exploration should begin with present day services.
There may be a need to listen to nurses working now. The nurses can tell trainers and educators where the nurse’s struggles exist within the education previously received. With this knowledge, educators can prepare lesson plans that provide the nurses with the educator rather than learning on the job.
Goals and Objectives
Once you place the task in observable and measurable terms, you are ready to write goals and objectives. The goals are the final product. These express how you will observe and measure mastery. Under each goal is a series of objectives. These must also reflect observable and measurable learning activities. The measurable criteria must state the minimum standard acceptable. Within the nursing profession, this becomes the level of competency and since it means health of individuals, it becomes important.
Pre-Testing
The first portion of the education plan is the pretest. With the pretest, you can determine the functioning level of the class. This is important to prevent boredom. You want to keep the attention of the class until they reach the point of the student’s need. With the pretest, you can use the knowledge already known as the point to build relevance and than move on to instruction.
Relevance
All knowledge needs to be prefaced to knowledge the class possesses. With this knowledge, the nursing students can envision the concepts. This personalizes the learning experience. It is wise at this point to introduce the lesson and inform the nurses how they will be able to know mastery. This sets the framework in which the nurse will progress through the goals and objectives.
Begin the Goals and Objectives
You start the goals and objectives. You need to keep an open mind to modification that becomes necessary in order to assist individual nurses to receive mastery. If a goal or objective appears to need more refinement do not feel that you failed, but write a sub-objective. It is more important to have the nurses reach mastery than justify your ability to write a plan.
Post Testing
If you operated within best practices in training program, the majority of nursing students and all that were qualified and fully participated will pass class goals. You can never guarantee all will pass because of factors beyond your control, but you will know that all who can illustrate mastery can follow through.
Nurse educational plan is important because a person’s health depends on the plan. Simple steps can get many nurses to the point of mastery.