When Learning Drives Technology - Assignment Example

Description of Two ways in Which Technology has positively impacted Nursing Education in Recent Years With its incorporation into nursing education, technology has had a significant and largely positive impact in nursing education. Adoption of technological advances has seen increased numbers of students taking nursing studies; this has been achieved via the use of online study courses whereby teachers able to attend to larger numbers of students as compared to numbers that they are able to attend to in the traditional classroom setup whereby both the tutor and the student have to be present in the classroom (Novotny & Davis 2006).

The adoption of online learning has had the benefit of making it easier for nursing students to advance their education. Various computer programs help the teachers to constantly monitor and evaluate the student’s progress and performance. These records are always up to date and the tutor can be able to quickly spot an area where a student is experiencing difficulties and can thus be able to offer timely help to the student (Novotny & Davis 2006). Students are able to gain more experience via the use of such aids as the Human Patient Simulator which can be able to duplicate various clinical situations will thus be able to help the students sharpen their critical decision making capabilities in a clinical environment setup.

Various computer based programs and software also present students with a wide variety of audio visual tools that can be able to help them develop effective clinical prognosis skills. Such skills eventually go a long way towards helping them become better nurses as a result of the increased confidence levels that the use of stimulatory technology helps to build up in the students. The Human Patient Simulator can be able to replicate a large variety of various health conditions that the student nurses are likely to come across in a real clinical situation This helps in ensuring that they are well placed to effectively respond to the situation appropriately (Nehring & Lashley 2010).

Negative Impact of Technology in Nursing Education Claims have been raised that, the use of technological simulations in nursing education should be discouraged. Proponents of this argument state that, nursing is essentially a high interaction career, and some facets of nursing such as the administration of drugs via injection can never be properly learnt via the use of computer based simulations (Nehring & Lashley 2010). The adoption of technology in teaching has the disadvantage of requiring an often heavy investment in appropriate infrastructure and equipment by the educational institution.

Such infrastructure normally involves the setting up of hardware, servers, computers and the relevant communication links. They institutions also need to invest in various web management and administrative software. With the fast improvements in technology that are being seen in the technological field, most of the equipment normally ends up being obsolete within a short time period as new advances are made (Novotny & Davis 2006).Constructivist Theory as Applied to the use of Modern Technology in Nursing Education A constructivist approach can be adopted and incorporated in the use of online and multimedia technologies as pertains to nursing education.

In line with the core principles of nursing education, the nursing educators need to ensure that the programs that they design learning programs that allow the students to do most of the work so as to ensure that they use the information received from the tutor to think and incorporate it into their lives. This will be seen to further facilitate the learning experience of the students according to the tenets of the constructivist theory. The students will be seen to construct new theories and knowledge that will be based on some of the existing experiences and knowledge (O’Neil et al 2009).

References:O'Neil A. Carol., Fisher A. C., & Newbold K. S. (2009). Developing online learning environments in nursing education. New York : Springer.Novotny J., & Davis H. R., (2006) Distance education in nursing. New York, NY : Springer Pub.Nehring M. W., & Lashley R. F. (2010) High-fidelity patient simulation in nursing education. Sudbury, Mass. : Jones and Bartlett Publishers.