chapter 2

• Sharing knowledge with others is one of the most important things a nurse does
• Assessment of the learner

  Includes attending to the three determinants of learning: Learning needs, Readiness to learn, Learning style
• Environment change

  Allows learning to reach its full potential
• Important steps in the assessment of learning needs


  • Identify the learner
• Assessing Learning Needs


  Nurse educators must first figure out what students need to learn to help those having trouble with cognitive, emotional, or psychomotor skills
• Factors affecting learning need to be considered for better understanding
• Assessment of the Learner


  First and most important step in educational design is to figure out what the students need, how ready they are to learn, and how they learn best
• Giving the learner knowledge does not guarantee that they will learn
• Instructors' role in learning

  • Help, encourage, and lead the students while they are learning
  • Help students find the best ways to learn and the most appropriate tasks that will both support and challenge them
• Learning needs


  Gaps in what is already known, the difference between what someone knows and what they need or want to know
• Assessment is often the first step in the learning process that gets little attention
• Learners don't always know what they don't know or what they want to know, so the teacher's job is to help them figure it out
• Assessment


  Helps the student learn by setting up experiences in the surroundings that help the student figure out why they want to learn and the best way to do it
• Educator's role in the learning process


  • Checking for problems or weaknesses and students' skills
  • Giving important best evidence information and showing it in unique and right ways
  • Seeing how much progress is being made
  • Giving comments and following up
  • Encouraging learning in the acquisition of new information, skills, and attitudes
  • Figuring out how well the education being given is working
• Setting goals and making plans for effective teaching and learning methods

  Using collected data about the learner's wants and interests
• Assessment is crucial before making any changes in nursing care
• Learners are often the best people to get information about their own needs
• Forging a trusting connection requires ensuring privacy and confidentiality
• Setting up a trusting atmosphere


  • Helps students feel safe sharing private information, knowing that their worries are being heard and valued, and knowing that they are respected
• Assessment of learning needs

  1. Identify the learner

  2. Choose the right setting

  3. Collect data about the learner

  4. Collect data from the learner

  5. Involve members of the healthcare team

  6. Prioritize needs

  7. Determine the availability of educational resources

  8. Assess the demands of the organization

  9. Take time-management issues into account
• Methods to Assess Learning Needs

  The nurse must collect both factual and subjective information from the student
• Time limits are a big problem for the review process

  The teacher should stress the following important points: direct to the point
• Students may have trouble rating themselves and may need explanations from the teacher
• Structured Interviews

  1. Asking the learner direct, often predetermined questions to assess learning needs

  2. Build trust, ask open-ended questions, pick a place with few distractions, let the learner say what they think their learning needs are

  3. Avoid passing judgment on the learner's strengths, beliefs, and motives

  4. Permission to take notes can be given by students

  5. Phone interviews can be used if in-person questioning is not possible
• Questionnaires are easier to run, give respondents more privacy, and produce simple-to-organize data
• Informal Conversations

  1. Nurses and patients or their families find out about a client's learning needs during casual talks with other people on the healthcare team

  2. Listening carefully is important for the nurse educator to pick up on learning needs

  3. Staff members can give useful information about what they need to learn by answering open-ended questions
• Focus groups are ideal for qualitative data and provide valuable insight on sensitive nursing concerns
• Focus Groups

  1. Discuss a topic with a small group of potential students to discover areas of educational need

  2. Facilitators ask open-ended questions to foster detailed discussion

  3. Establish a safe space for participants to communicate sensitive information

  4. Unidentified facilitators can benefit research focus groups

  5. Participants may fear disclosing weaknesses

  6. Focus groups should consider participants' similarities in age, gender, and experience
• The Patient Learning Needs Assessment is a valid and reliable self-testing tool
• Written tests before lessons can help teachers understand students' existing knowledge and learning needs
• Methods to Assess Learning Needs

  1. Collect both factual and subjective information from the student

  2. Use a combination of methods for the most accurate results
• Methods to find out students' learning needs

  • Informal Conversations
  • Structured Interviews
  • Questionnaires
  • Focus Groups
  • Tests
• Questionnaires

  1. Show doubts, disagreements, contradictions, unanticipated issues, worries, fears, and current knowledge

  2. Ask various questions to assess learning needs
• Teaching professionals should encourage students to be honest in their self-evaluations
• Formal and Informal Requests


  1. Staff suggestions for educational events based on perceived needs

  2. Ensuring alignment with overall staff needs
• Observations

  1. Watching health behaviors at different times to find established patterns

  2. Watching a person perform a skill multiple times to assess proficiency and identify areas for improvement
• Documentation sources for learning needs of patients

  • Initial assessments
  • Progress notes
  • Nurse care plans
  • Staff notes
  • Discharge planning forms
• Chart Audits

  Reviewing charts to identify patterns and areas for staff improvement
• Assessing the Learning Needs of Nursing Staff


  1. Emphasizing the importance of determining staff learning needs

  2. Considering assumptions of learning needs assessments

  3. Practical tips on creating a survey needs assessment
• Tests

  • Giving written tests before planned lessons
  • Using pretest results to compare with posttest scores