When nursing students enter the clinical setting, staff nurses observe how they function to determine the academic skill level, the quality of instruction by their teachers, and the success or failure of their schools.  Critics and some researchers say today’s tests do not provide the type of information about skills needed to draw fair conclusions about the students.

I noted numerous BSN programs advocate the demonsration-return-demonstration learning methods.  The clinical laboratory setting allows the instructor to provide the student with a guided display of the function, followed by observing the student perform the same function.

We have all been taught to read the labels on the foods we buy so that we are better able to make decisions about what we put into our bodies. The same goes for medications and over-the-counter products.  But what about the instructional products or strategies  used to educate  students?  Are teachers learning to be better consumers by using scientifically based or peer-reviewed research?  How will teachers  answer the questions from parents or legal advocates when they ask what the research says about the specialized services they are providing their child?

Online learning  is a broad phrase.  One can make an argument that a student without the ability to go online will not be adequately prepared for working.  In response many educators and political leaders are enlightened to move American schools back to the forefront of learning by providing online access for all students.

Clearly, no one would want to have an IV started by a nurse who’d had only online training.  Some things are inescapably hands-on.  This is where the demonstration-return-demonstration learning method comes in.  I viewed several, well adapted videos on full body assessments.

The new generation of teachers must have more pedagogical preparation, like teaching second language learners or using vitural learning. To teach effectively, teachers will also need the right kind of working conditions that give them time to learn from experts.

I viewed several videos of demonstration-return-demonstation and noted a signinficant number of the students spoke English as a second language.   As part of the learning method, nurse educators will have to learn from their collegues and participate in school-community partnerships to better serve today’s diverse students.

As a nurse, you have the unique opportunity to learn something new daily. Some days you may simply rethink a concept you have already  mastered and apply it in a completely different way.  In this way, learning is cyclical. The things that are taught in school never go away; they just take on a new form. 

My search for demonstration-return-demonstration learning methods revealed nurses follow many guidelines that date back to the 1800s.