Preparing students to be ready for practice: An innovative approach to teaching advanced physical assessment skills online

Abstract

Distance graduate nursing education has been expanding. Although many didactic courses are taught through an online platform, there are often challenges to providing skill-based courses, such as advanced physical assessment, through an online format. To prepare and assess advanced practice nursing students on their clinical knowledge and physical assessment skills, an online course was developed using multisource feedback and videography. Students used videography to record themselves as they conducted physical assessments on a volunteer patient. Students then critiqued their own video, critiqued two of their colleagues' videos, and the final critiques of the videos were conducted by faculty. All students were expected to perform and pass a complete physical examination on a standardize patient as their final examination. The final scores of the students learning through the online course were equivalent to the scores achieved by the students in the traditional face-to-face physical assessment course.

Clinical Nursing Worksheet: Indonesian Nursing Diagnosis Standard-Based Assessment Form as An Online Learning Media of Nursing Clinical Practice

“…Web-based online learning can improve students' ability to determine actual diagnoses, health promotion diagnoses, and risk diagnoses better. Students can use web-based exercises anytime, anywhere, and use virtual cases as much as possible (18,24). Completeness of data presentation displayed on the assessment form/ worksheet is critical to support students' accuracy in preparing a nursing diagnosis.…”

“…Electronic-based nursing documentation is also better than paper-based processes and structures (25). Other research through integration learning of diagnosis and formative assessment-based with web learning methods and forms of checklist physical assessment skills also considered more practical and efficient and able to improve the acceptance of benefits, learning assistance, and student satisfaction (24,26). Online media as a learning tool is expected to ease the learning process and ease knowledge transfer.…”

Transitioning a Graduate Nursing Physical Examination Skills Lab to an Online Learning Modality

“…As noted previously, few articles described teaching advanced physical examination skills in an online learning modality. 20,21 Higgins et al 20 demonstrated that students perform equally as well on physical examination taught in an online modality as compared with face-to-face. Given the limited evidence about the effectiveness of teaching physical examination skills online at the time of the course redesign, the authors were concerned that the transition to online might result in poor psychomotor performance of advanced assessment skills and a decrease in overall academic performance.…”

Virtual Health Assessment Laboratory Course Delivery and Nursing Student Clinical Judgment

“…7,[9][10][11][12][13][14] The primary learning outcomes of health assessment courses include the integration of the components of health assessment to promote health using the nursing process, the demonstration of the safe and appropriate use of health assessment techniques with consideration of the age and developmental stage of the individual and/or family, physical examination proficiency in preparation for clinical practice, and the use of a relational practice approach to conduct health assessments. 7,[9][10][11][12][13][14] In nursing education, online delivery of health assessment has included computer-based virtual simulation programs and use of instructional videos to facilitate independent practice of physical examination techniques. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Research evidence has shown a relationship between simulation experiences and nursing students' clinical judgment.…”

“…7,[9][10][11][12][13][14] In nursing education, online delivery of health assessment has included computer-based virtual simulation programs and use of instructional videos to facilitate independent practice of physical examination techniques. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Research evidence has shown a relationship between simulation experiences and nursing students' clinical judgment. [14][15][16][17][18][19] In the context of nursing and nursing education, clinical judgment is defined as "an interpretation or conclusion about a patient's needs, concerns, or health problems and/or the decision to take action (or not), use or modify standard approaches, or improvise new ones as deemed appropriate by the patient's response."…”