The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

5185.0: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 3:00 PM

Abstract #72755

Helping the nurse think "community" on the web; The Developement Experience

Roxie Thompson Isherwood, PHD and Sandra C. Tenove, RN, PhD. Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada, 403 220 6267, isherwoo@ucalgary.ca

In a reforming health care system, there is a need for nurses to increasingly move into the community and to respond to health issues at an aggregate level. The entry-to-practice issue of baccalaureate preparation also encourages diploma nurses to continue their education at the university level. However, practising nurses often find post-diploma university courses difficult to access due to the competing demands of work and family, the constraints of geographical distance, and the fit with individual learning needs. The challenge of nursing education is to create nursing courses that are relevant to the all stakeholders and that can be delivered in a meaningful way to individual nurses in their home communities at convenient times. This presentation chronicles the development and initial delivery of two public/community health nursing courses to nurses in Canada and the United States by web technology. During the development phase, existing courses were redesigned to fit learner needs, content expectations, and technology requirements. Discussion will focus on the challenges of theory-lab-clinical experiences, the use of technology supports for interaction, and theory-practice integration opportunities. During the first three years of offering the theory and practice courses, formative and summative evaluation data have provided a basis for revision in course structures and processes to better meet the needs of student, faculty, and practice stakeholders. The evolving web sites for the theory and clinical courses will be displayed and discussed as a basis for audience participation in exploring the future possibilities for web-based teaching and learning in nursing education.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Computer-Assisted,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

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The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA