Exam (elaborations) .M22058 Course Code: 2410213

jor Objectives of Project: The primary objectives of this project are to help students make better links between scientific and nursing knowledge, and make clinical applications based on this knowledge. The innovative approach involved two frameworks: a. A knowledge of the drug families; b. An understanding of the clinical decision making process. The drug family framework involves grouping specific drugs according to common mechanisms of action. Instead of learning about long lists of specific drugs in a superficial and unrelated way, students develop an understanding of the characteristics of a family of drugs. This approach involves an explanation of the drug family’s mechanisms of action. From this mechanism of action, therapeutic and unwanted adverse effects of the drug family can be derived. This explanation holds for all members of the drug family. Therefore, when faced with any drug from this family in clinical practice, students can apply the general characteristics of the family. By using the clinical decision making process, students are encouraged to structure their care of a client receiving drug therapy, according to the following components: assessing the client, planning treatment, implementing and evaluating therapy. Students would be expected do this in clinical practice. Teaching Development: This teaching innovation, consisting of a CD-ROM and teaching guide, complements the teaching program of pharmacology. Teaching staff introduce key background knowledge relating to nursing and science in class prior to giving students the opportunity to use this package. The CD-ROM contains three simulated clinical scenarios. Each scenario covers the drug therapy of a client with a common medical condition. We have focused on three medical conditions that students encounter in clinical practice (asthma, congestive cardiac failure and diabetes mellitus) and their respective drug therapies. The client-nurse interaction in the simulation consists of video images, animations and sound, activated by pressing on-screen buttons. Most importantly, the video is shot from the perspective that the nurse caring for the client is the student at the computer. In other words, the client talks directly to the student. For those students who wish to review possible areas of difficulty, the CD-ROM also includes a module on the drug families covered in all scenarios, and access to a website where they may practise drug calculations (http: // The on-line teaching guide provides academic staff with helpful information to assist them in using the package in their course. Student Learning Outcomes: After completing the innovative package, nursing students should be able to: a. Link the scientific and nursing principles of pharmacology with each other, and with clinical practice; b. Reflect on and analyse the relationships between aspects of clinical decision making (eg., patient assessment, treatment planning, implementation, and evaluation of drug therapy); c. Demonstrate their understanding and application of the drug family framework. Development of Teaching Innovation Through the Project Justification and Educational Rationale Following extensive experience in nursing education, we have found that nursing students encounter a number of problems in their learning of pharmacology. These problems are also supported in the literature (Courtenay, 1991; Manias, 1997). Students have trouble integrating the scientific knowledge of pharmacology (such as drug mechanisms of action, drug effects and pharmacokinetics) with the nursing knowledge (such as drug administration and drug calculations). They also experience difficulties in applying these principles to clinical practice. Students also tend to use superficial approaches to learning pharmacology rather than deep approaches (Ramsden, 1992). For example they often rote learn a long list of individual drugs without recognising that common characteristics shared by a number of drugs enable these drugs to be grouped together. The educational rationale for this project is to help students make better links between scientific and nursing knowledge of pharmacology, and then make clinical applications. Medication regimes administered to clients are constantly changing. New drugs become available to consumers as older drugs are replaced. As students develop an understanding of the drug family framework, they will have established a powerful approach for life-long learning about new drugs. We have already taken steps to improve learning outcomes for students by publishing a textbook using the drug family approach and clinical decision making framework (Galbraith, Bullock & Manias, 1997). The project provides a good opportunity for students to consolidate their scientific and nursing knowledge. The current teaching program of lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions and clinical experience, extends into new areas through incorporation of the project. The project constructs clinical encounters that students actively experience rather than simply read. They are able to visualise the more abstract physiological effects of the drugs in the body using animations. In addition, as the project constitutes only one aspect of the total learning program, it links and complements other teaching modes used. Finally, the need for this product is reinforced by the enthusiastic and positive responses of academic staff and students alike to the test versions of this project. There is no evidence of a similar project undertaken elsewhere. A survey of Australian universities regarding the availability of nursing pharmacology software revealed an absence of similar projects. An extensive literature review indicated a paucity of learning materials developed in the area of pharmacology for nursing students. Target Student Group The target student group involves second year students taught in the second year of the undergraduate nursing course of RMIT University and ACU. This group comprises approximately 220 students from RMIT University and 100 students from ACU. The initiative provided a necessary bridge between basic science and nursing subjects undertaken in first year, and the more specialised clinical science and nursing subjects of second year