Assessment of learner's needs - Essay Example

Assessment of learner's needs Introduction Nursing education refers to the practice through which learning is made possible via curriculum design, teaching, evaluation, and any other professional activities undertaken by the staff. NLN is dedicated to nursing, by offering a variety of nursing education programs. Dynamic and integrated core values pervade the NLN; which are a reflection of the work done by nurses. This paper will discuss on the NLN learner population. The responses within the framework pillars, as well as NLN competencies will be reflected in this paper.

Responses with the framework pillars Responses within the framework pillars include caring, critical thinking, communication, holism, and professionalism. Communication is key for any serious learning to take place, and so the education should be able to identify the multicultural diversity of the learners and ensure that there are no communication barriers. Critical thinking in nursing has been given high importance by different people. Jones in Potter & Perry’s state; ‘the ability to think critically through the application of knowledge and experience, problem solving and decision making is central to professional nursing practice.

’ (Crisp, & Taylor, 2012). It is essential that educators ensure that learners have the ability think critically at all times. Professionalism should be observed at all times by the educator. It is also he has the duty to ensure that the learners understand the importance of professionalism in the nursing practice. The educator should be caring and understanding to the learner so as to create a favorable learning environment. All individuals linked to nursing discipline must abide by the core values.

These core values hold a nurse responsible for the following; health promotion and healing in response to the human condition, respect of dignity and moral wholeness of every individual without conditions and or limitations, affirming the uniqueness of and differences among ethnicities and ideas, creating and implementing transformative strategies with daring ingenuity (Wittmann-Price, & Godshall, 2009). NLN Nurse Educator competencies Nurse educators are in charge of creating a favorable environment, be it in the classroom, laboratory, and or clinical settings that facilitate student learning.

It is necessary that, the educator be competent order to be able to cater for the learner’s needs. The educator should be in a position to come up with teaching strategies; that are effective in teaching and handling learner’s individual needs. In addition to that, the nurse educator must also strive to achieve the desired cognitive, psychomotor, and affective outcomes (National League for Nursing, 2005). Leaner population The subject of the learner module is nursing skills 1- vital signs.

This module is necessary for the preparation of the learners in improving patient safety, as well as quality in a practical environment. Six competencies of quality nursing care and patient safety were identified. Nurse educator learner’s population is comprised of ten first year students. The number of people enrolling for high education in greatly increasing and, so it is likely that this number of term first year students could increase. This population is gender imbalanced, containing two men and eight women.

This could be because nursing has been stereotyped as a woman’s job, and so most male learners opt to do other courses that are masculine by society. Other than the gender imbalance, there is a generational difference that is brought about by the qualifications needed to be a learner and also the fact that there is no age limit for one to be a learner. This is evident from the ages of the learning population. These individuals fall between the age brackets of 28 to 41 years but could go higher.

This age difference brings about the need for new teaching strategies. Methods for assessing Assessing was done formally and informally. I gave informal assessment by having brief meetings with all the learners privately since they are a small number, and I asked general questions concerning their lives like why they wanted to be nurses. Some did not have ready answers but the majority of the mature learners had ready and genuine reasons as to why they were studying nursing. They had a clear mind on the direction they wanted their lives to the head and were determined to achieve their goals.

In formal assessment, I gave the group a term paper to write on the effects of long term smoking based on real life case studies. The performance was good on average. However, it was quite a task for some of the learners who have significant responsibilities outside the classroom. I have two single parents in the group who have to work, study and look after their children. They had little time to themselves, and this was a problem because they could have done a better job with their reports. There is also a student who had little time to do their research due to their busy work schedule as a respiratory therapist.

This shows that the younger learners without much to do after school give all their time in class projects and in turn do a better job. Conclusion The diversity of the assessed group means that the educator will have to come up with a new strategy for teaching to accommodate the needs and competence of each learner. The new teaching strategy will have to be age sensitive and allow the educator to determine the individual needs of each learner. There are however, some advantages of having a diverse group in that the learners are able to learn at their own pace and work in groups that they find comfortable for their needs.

The educator should be able to allow this learning partnerships and accommodate it in the teaching strategy. The teaching strategy should also be able to take care of the challenges involved in having a diverse group. For example, the teaching strategy should be able to keep all learners challenged and interested at all times. This means that education will have to identify the groups’ generation X and its baby boomers, and come up with ways of ensuring that none lags behind or becomes overwhelmed in the process of learning.

This can be done by having more practical lessons, group work, and discussions e.t.c to ensure everyone’s participation. References Crisp, J., & Taylor, C. (2012). Potter & Perry's fundamentals of nursing. Chatswood, N.S.W: Mosby. National League for Nursing. (2005). Core competencies of nurse educators with task statements. Retrieved from: http://www.nln.org/profdev/corecompetencies.pdf Wittmann-Price, M. R., & Godshall, D. M. (2009). Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) Review Manual. New York: Springer Pub. Co.