Student Name
Capella University
NURS-FPX 6030 MSN Practicum and Capstone
Prof. Name:
Date
Nursing licensure exams allow nursing graduates to attain a license to practice in clinical areas. National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) is a test specific for Registered Nurses (RNs) and Practical Nurses (PNs) in the United States to assess essential nursing competencies for safe and effective care. This capstone project is about introducing a blended learning approach at Chippewa Valley Technical College to improve NCLEX passing rates.
This assessment mainly designs an evaluation plan by elaborating on the anticipated outcomes of the interventional plan. Furthermore, the paper assesses nurses’ role in fostering change and improvements in the quality of healthcare services. It discusses how the project can be leveraged to produce a broader impact. Lastly, I will reflect on the project’s impact on my personal practices and leadership abilities, ensuring the project’s applicability to personal practices for quality improvement.
The interventional plan comprises adopting a blended learning approach through a flipped classroom model. The plan includes a three-pronged approach: weekly online lectures, biweekly online quizzes, and online simulations once per month. Through the implementation of the flipped classroom model, we anticipate that students will enhance their knowledge and develop critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. Ultimately, the predominant goal of improving NCLEX passing rates is achieved. These outcomes portray the primary purpose of our interventional plan to explore the effectiveness of the blended learning approach in increasing NCLEX pass rates and equipping students with the necessary theoretical knowledge and clinical skills for future nursing practices.
]Emphasizing NCLEX pass rates assists in evaluating the competencies of nursing graduates through substantial and widely recognized measures (House & Sweet, 2022). Through different learning methods, we aim to foster a comprehensive understanding and gauge students’ participation, contributing to improving NCLEX pass rates. These outcomes establish a framework to improve the quality of care, patient safety, and patient experiences by creating a competent workforce. A higher NCLEX pass rate indicates that more LPN graduates have the skills to perform safe, high-quality patient care. Simultaneously, the blended learning approach integrated through the flipped classroom model enhances critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills so that nurses can address complex healthcare situations in their future clinical practices (Almasloukh et al., 2023).
Our evaluation plan begins with collecting comprehensive data related to the experimental group, which had received blending learning, and the control group, which was taught traditional learning methods. The data should include individual student NCLEX pass rates, performance on weekly online modules, scores on biweekly quizzes, and participation in monthly simulation activities. Data collection methods include quantitative methods such as quiz scores and examination passing rates. Surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focused group discussions can gather qualitative data, capturing participants’ experiences and insights about intervention effectiveness (Busetto et al., 2020). While Learning Management Systems (LMS) will be utilized to track student engagement, NCLEX pass rate data can be acquired from official testing organizations.
On the other hand, surveys can be administered through online survey programs, facilitating effective data collection and analysis. We will analyze the data using specific software tools, such as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), involving descriptive and statistical methods. Additionally, qualitative data analysis may involve coding and thematic analysis using various software tools. This evaluation plan will demonstrate the impact of the intervention by presenting a comprehensive picture of student performance and perceptions, highlighting statistical differences in NCLEX pass rates between blended learning and traditional groups. Ultimately, this provides an evidence-based assessment of the intervention’s effectiveness in achieving the desired outcomes and improving healthcare quality.
The evaluation plan assumes that student engagement increases with a more comprehensive and flexible learning approach, introduced through our blended learning – flipped classroom model approach. Student engagement is a critical factor in the effectiveness of the blended learning approach to improve NCLEX passing rates due to constant participation in online modules, quizzes, and simulation activities. Secondly, the assumption is that the flipped classroom model aligns with LPN students’ education needs and preferences to foster in-depth comprehension of nursing concepts, improving critical thinking skills. The relevance of the intervention is crucial for observing positive changes in NCLEX pass in 12 months.
The nurse plays a crucial role as educators and facilitators to advocate for introducing a blended learning approach in LPN education. Nurse educators are catalysts to change as they emphasize the integration of practical and real-world situations in the classroom (Raj, 2023). We aim to connect education with practice through the flipped classroom model, creating well-rounded nursing professionals ready for real-world challenges. The nurses, as educators, take on the responsibility to ensure an effective transition from traditional in-person methods to the blended learning model. This involves providing educational materials, training faculty members, and fostering collaboration to support team members throughout the transition phase, leading to effective change and driving quality improvements in nursing education and healthcare settings.
Since the blended learning approach emphasizes critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills, it aims to produce fully competent nursing professionals to provide safe, high-quality patient care. By bridging the gap between education and healthcare practices, the nurse contributes to continuous improvement, influencing the quality and experience of care within the healthcare landscape (Raj, 2023). This analysis assumes that nurses, frontline healthcare workers, have profound knowledge about ever-changing healthcare practices. Thus, they are well-equipped to advocate for integrating a blended learning approach to ensure new graduates are trained comprehensively and adapt to the complex healthcare changes.
Our interventional plan positively impacts the nursing profession as it modernizes education, preparing future nurses to navigate changing healthcare demands and improving their competencies and adaptability. Thus elevating nursing practice. Moreover, a collaborative environment is generated by integrating education and real-world healthcare scenarios. This plan encourages a collaborative environment to solve problems and fosters a shared commitment to improving patient outcomes. Besides this, our interventional plan produces multifaceted gains in healthcare by addressing the growing need for adaptable and highly skilled nursing professionals.
These professionals can provide high-quality care to the patients. The project’s success could set an example for innovative educational approaches, increasing NCLEX pass rates, improving healthcare competencies, and shaping a trained, competent, and collaborative healthcare workforce (Cosper et al., 2023). However, such quality improvements come with uncertain situations. Student participation and implementing a blended learning approach effectively within the project setting are major unforeseen situations. Resource limitation and ineffective coordination can bring several challenges that must be addressed to attain desired results.
To create broader impacts through our interventional plan, we could leverage our project by integrating personalized learning pathways to tailor educational content based on individual needs. Such an approach demonstrates positive student engagement and improves learning outcomes (Hinkle, 2023). Incorporating virtual reality for immersive clinical simulations can enhance engagement and skill acquisition. These adaptive technologies help students learn in a modernized environment, preparing the adaptable nursing workforce to navigate healthcare challenges. Utilization of learning analytics can leverage technology to improve students’ performance. These technologies can assess patterns of student performance, assisting faculty to make timely interventions for students’ needs (Chan et al., 2019).
Our plan could leverage the Collaborative Approach to Nursing Care Model to align with emerging care models. This model emphasizes practice-based education, a synergistic collaboration of academic and healthcare settings. The vision of this model is to generate positive experiences for the students to ensure they are well-prepared for complex healthcare challenges, ultimately improving patient safety and outcomes. This analysis assumes that students and faculty have adequate access to technology knowledge. Another assumption is stakeholders’ readiness to change and embrace new technology and care models. Lastly, the plan assumes that the organization will have sufficient resources to ensure the smooth integration of advanced technologies.
This capstone project has significantly enhanced my abilities to improve personal practice and care settings. While I was actively engaged in the development of a blended learning approach to nursing education, I gained insights into innovative teaching and learning strategies and their impact on enhancing nursing competencies. Through this experience, I am empowered to advocate for innovations in my current role, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability to evolving educational practices. The capstone project provided a solid ground and honed my project management, collaboration, and leadership skills, essential for my future leadership positions where I can actively participate in change and quality improvement projects and in roles where I may contribute to shaping the path of nursing education.
These insights are transferable into my current practice, where I can initiate discussions to integrate technologies in clinical education. By leveraging evidence-based findings from the project, I can advocate for integrating online modules and simulated learning experiences for clinical nurses to augment their clinical competencies. This knowledge transfer is essential for continuous care quality improvement through effective and continuing professional education. The transferability of the project to other contexts lies in collaborating with other healthcare institutions and academic programs to exchange evidence-based best practices. This eventually fosters a collective effort to enhance nursing education on a broader scale.
References
Almasloukh, K. B., Miner, M., Phillips, K., & Evans, M. (2023). Educational strategies and nursing theory to prepare learners for NCLEX‐RN. Nursing Open, 10(11), 7144–7153. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1998
Busetto, L., Wick, W., & Gumbinger, C. (2020). How to use and assess qualitative research methods. Neurological Research and Practice, 2(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42466-020-00059-z
Chan, A. K., Botelho, M. G., & Lam, O. L. (2019). Use of learning analytics data in health care–related educational disciplines: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(2), e11241. https://doi.org/10.2196/11241
Cosper, S. M., Callan, R. S., & Anderson, L. S. (2023). Investigating student and faculty perspectives related to predictors of NCLEX-RN success: A mixed methods approach. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 18(3), 360–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2023.02.002
Hinkle, J. F. (2023). Personalization and learning outcome in a nursing pathophysiology and pharmacology course: Canvas©Mastery adoption pilot study. SAGE Open Nursing, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608231186030
House, S. K., & Sweet, S. (2022). Adapting NCLEX-RN remediation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 17(2), 237–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2021.11.005
Raj, A. (2023). Nurse educators as catalysts for change: Advocating for stronger integration between education and services. Journal of Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.35841/aaiccn-6.4.159
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