Category: Place Based Learning

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Promoting the SBAR Communication Tool with Nursing Students

Promoting the SBAR Communication Tool with Nursing Students

Konstantina Caris

New York City College of Technology/Nursing

NUR-1110/Caring for Clients with Common Alterations in Functional Needs

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Knowing that patient handover is often poorly performed, with critical detail being omitted and irrelevant information included at patient handoff this activity stresses on implementing the use of the ISBAR tool with nursing students during clinicals. SBAR stands for situation (clearly and briefly describe the current patient’s situation), background (provide clear, relevant background information on the patient), assessment (state your professional conclusion, based on the situation and background), and recommendation (telling the person with whom you’re communicating what would you recommend correcting the problem).

This format ensures clinicians communicating significant information in continuity of patient care, preventing errors and harm in hospital settings or community settings. It provides a standardized approach to communication which is a core skill that needs to be taught to nursing students and junior clinicians. It highlights key elements and explores teaching techniques that aim to ensure the framework is rooted in practice effectively resulting in patient’s safety and better patient outcomes.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The goal of this activity is to develop the student’s critical thinking and communication skills during patient’s handover by following the SBAR format. The need to assess, understand, analyze, prioritize patient health issues, and recommend solutions, is imperative among clinicians in healthcare. Communicating accurate patient information from team to team is an essential component of good patient care, effective management of the patient’s condition, and teamwork. However, critical thinking skills does not happen overnight. Students need to practice this format constantly during clinical rotations to enhance critical thinking and communication skills and at the same time prevent patient errors.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This activity was implemented step by step during clinical rotations the entire semester. For two weeks we devoted 60 minutes learning and understanding the importance of the SBAR tool and how it works.

Next, for four clinical days students practiced the format taking into consideration the information they obtained while caring and assessing assigned patients. Their report emphasized on the patient’s main problem, on communicating appropriate patient’s history, the right examination/observation, and creating a clear recommendation.

At midsemester, while each student gave report, the other students listen and observed. At post conference they had the opportunity to critique the report by asking questions, make suggestions, and reflect if the sequence of the SBAR format was followed. For example: “If the student highlighted key elements of effective clinical information”, “Did they give excess information or too little”, “How did they feel being the presenter as opposed to observer”, or “What they would have done differently and why”. This activity took between 30-45 minutes.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

This is an ongoing interactive high stakes assignment where the instructor assigned a patient to the student to assess and care the entire clinical day. During this time the student must think critically when deciding what patient information should be communicated to other healthcare professionals according to their assessment, knowledge, analysis, problem solving, and reflection. Practicing the ISBAR format during nursing clinicals increases their capacity to share key information, be mindful of their role as well as their team members, enhance their confidence on patient assessments, and implement optimal patient interventions.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

High stakes assignment=level of engagement.
Students who observed as well as the instructor had to complete a four-point scale ranging “Not performed the SBAR format competently”, to “Able to perform format under minimal direction”. Student’s performance focused on “What is going on with the patient”, “ What was the patient’s clinical background or context”, “If appropriate assessment/observation was done”, and “ What would they recommend to correct the problem”.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

A continuous effort to stress the importance to communicate key elements of effective clinical handover emphasized during clinicals with nursing students. By following the use of the SBAR format during clinical, prepares them not only for the clinical demands of the job, but also focuses on their critical thinking and communication skills that are so important for improving patient outcomes and recognizing a decline in a patient’s condition. At the same time instructors can explore teaching techniques that aim to ensure the framework is embedded in practice effectively.

Involving students to learn a structured way to communicate relevant patient information to other healthcare professionals was challenging due to overwhelming nursing material they had to cover during their semester. However, at the end of their clinicals they expressed that the SBAR format helped them organize patient information in a structured way saving time. Prioritizing on what information should they handover was also challenging because they had to focus on what is going on currently and taking into consideration patient’s general health status.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

SBAR

Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation

Example

Mr. Barnes is a 72 y/o admitted to the oncology unit yesterday for his 5th cycle of in-patient chemotherapy for gastric cancer. He has a fever of 102.5 F. He’s receiving a continuous 48-hour infusion of Oxaliplatin and 5-FU. other than the fever, his vital signs are all normal: BP 124/64, HR 62, RR16, O2 98%. He has no complaint of pain or discomfort, NKA. As the primary nurse you’re concerned about the fever and neutropenia. You would like and order for Tylenol, blood cultures, and a CBC.

Organized structured format for SBAR

Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation

S=This is Jane Doe, the primary nurse for Mr. Barnes, on the medical oncology unit. He is febrile, 102.5 F.

B- He was admitted yesterday for his 5th cycle of in-patient chemotherapy for gastric cancer. He’s receiving a continuous 48 hors infusion of Oxaliplatin and 5-FU. He has no known allergies.

A-Other than the fever, his vital signs are all normal: BP 124/64, HR 62, RR 16,02 98%. He has no complaint of pain or discomfort.

R- I am concerned about the fever and neutropenia, I recommend an order for Tylenol, blood cultures, and a CBC. Is there anything ales you would recommend at this time?

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Career Exploration Assignment

Career Exploration Assignment

Rosa Abreu

Hospitality Management/Professional Studies

Perspective in Hospitality Management

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

As students prepare for their internship and future career, they will research employment prospects within the Hospitality and Tourism industry. The students are to write a two page essay answering specific questions, write a cover letter and provide a one page bibliography.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Discuss the scope of the hospitality and tourism industry.

Evaluate and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources to classify and examine food and beverage operations.

Describe and discuss the roles and responsibilities of key executives and department heads in the hospitality industry.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This assignment is introduced in week 6 of the semester, with a dedicated 45-minute session allocated for questions and answers.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

This term project is high stake, as students are reintroduced to APA style guidelines and instructed on how to create a one page bibliography.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I utilized the AAC&U Information Literacy rubric for assessment purposes only. I don't use the rubric for grading students' work.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This activity proved to be highly effective in my classroom. As part of the project, students delivered a three-minute presentation about their chosen career paths. This not only allowed them to showcase their own goals but also provided their classmates with valuable insights into various careers within the industry.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

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Public Space design

Public Space design

Christopher Stienon

Fordham

Urbanism

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This activity is for a course on urbanism that examines the context and principles of good urban design. This assignment began with a walking tour of Midtown Manhattan to visit several prominent public spaces including Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Bryant Park, Union Square, etc. The students were to experience these places and then select one they liked and hype it in the form of short video (like TikTok), a blog post, or podcast, etc. Based on their observations, they were subsequently asked to select a space they didn’t like and reconceive it using features and elements from the places they liked. These were presented to the class in the form of single image of a shadow box / stage set.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The purpose of the activity was two-fold. It gave the students a sense of the scale of the city and places within it (which was later used as a scale comparison with looking at other cities), and it pushed them to look at the character of place and the factors that made them this way. For example, was a space noisy or quiet, active or empty of people, shaded or sunny, small large, etc. The idea was to get the students to look at how the character of place affects human behavior.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This assignment was given at the beginning of the semester before examining the history of cities.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

There is no preparation needed. The first part of the assignment was to follow a walking tour of several public spaces in Midtown Manhattan, starting at Grand Army Plaza next to Central Park and proceeding down Fifth Avenue to Rockefeller Center and crossing to Times Square and following Broadway all the way to Union Square.
The students were asked to look at all the open spaces to understand how they are physically different and what was contributing to the character of place. The students were to select a space they liked and hype it. That is they could create a photo essay, a blog or a TikTok video – or any medium that described why the space they liked was so appealing – and then hype it – that is, describe why the space was successful and attractive. Why should someone want to go there?
The second part of this assignment asked the students to then select a space they didn’t like and reconceive it using the elements from the space they liked. The students were to create a shadow box / stage set rendition of their proposal and present it in class.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

The VALUE rubric touched on Analysis and Design. The activity was assessed by how well the students were able to communicate and describe what they were seeing and identify contributing factors to the quality of place (analysis). For example, Bryant Park was frequently cited as a successful public space because it was less crowded and quiet, it felt separate from the rest of the city yet there were activities and people within the park. The creation of a shadow box to illustrate a proposed redesign of a particular place they didn't initially like was assessed by how well they could take an idea or an observation and translate it to a different setting – and could these ideas be clearly communicated.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

The assignment was well received, and I will use it again, but I will introduce the project to the students differently the next time. I'll need to emphasize that this is not simply a documentation of a site visit, but an actual analysis of why a space is attractive. It may entail an entire lecture devoted to the design of public open spaces so they understand what these contributing factors actually are before having them undertake the assignment.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

As with all assignments, there are students looking for the simplest and fastest way to complete the work, so some students simply turned in a series of unedited video clips taken as they went from place to place and talked about what they were seeing along the way. If they did this in a group, then each student had more or less the same set of images. This was not entirely bad since there was at least evidence that they visited these spaces, but it was far short of focusing on the details of a particular place.

But the students who pushed a bit did some fantastic work. The result was an assortment of TikTok videos, podcast scripts and recordings, newsletters and blog posts – all capturing elements of the city; the lights, the sounds and the action.

With the second half of the assignment several students listed Times Square as there least preferred space, so there were several proposals for a Bryant Park or Union Square themed makeover of Times Square or 42nd Street. There was a general sense of playfulness and experimentation with these proposals and presentation.

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PowerPoint Presentation: Global Learning – Comparison of Alfred Schenker’s Secret War Diary, 1941-43 to a Current Event in Terms of Human Impact

PowerPoint Presentation: Global Learning – Comparison of Alfred Schenker’s Secret War Diary, 1941-43 to a Current Event in Terms of Human Impact

Prof. Nadine Weinstein-Lavi

English/NYCCT

English 1121

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students were asked to read my grandfather, Alfred Schenker's Secret War Diary, 1941-43, written while he was hiding in a cellar with nine other Jews in Lvov, then Poland, and to do namep-based and place-based research using the diary. Then, students were asked to compare an idea, quotes, names, and places in the diary to a comparable event, e.g. the current Russian invasion of Lvyv, now Ukraine (same city), or slavery, etc., and to conclude with how their ideas about those events changed as a result of their research, and how that has impacted them personally.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The Learning Goals for students are to acquire a global perspective in terms of learning about a specific historical event using an actual historical document (my grandfather's Secret War Diary) and to make a comparison to a comparable and/or modern event in terms of social, human, ethical, and cultural impact, so that they, in turn, might expand upon their perceptions of history vis a vis modern events and how they might effect change in actuality – whether via more open and embracing stances or more – in the world.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

The reading of the diary and the subsequent PowerPoint presentation assignment was done in the middle of the semester to mark it as a unique "break" and transition assignment from the previous text (a Netflix series) to the next one, and to have students engage with current events, e.g. the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Preparation involved a guided reading and discussion of the diary in class, homework to finish reading it on their own, answering 5 Discussion questions posted on Blackboard about the diary with 1 paragraph responses to prepare them to think about it more deeply, and suggestions as to possible topics for comparison for the PowerPoint. A slideshow demonstrating how to create a PowerPoint using the diary was shown, and specific guidance was given to each student regarding his/her topic. This was a high stakes activity given the nature of the thinking and analysis that the students were asked to do in class and on their own worth 25 points. They did very well on this particular assignment.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

The rubric was as follows (given in bullet points on the board):
*Aim for 10-12 slides
*Present SLOs and what you will determine
*Use images that you have researched about the diary and additional images you find about the places and names in it
*Use images of the comparable event
*Analyze the similarities and differences
*Answer 4 questions: 1. What were your assumptions about both event prior researching them? 2. How have your assumptions changed post-research? 3. How this has affected you personally and in terms of your worldview? 4. How will you effect change in the world as a result of this new perspective?

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This activity worked very well in the classroom. Students were immediately engaged in reading an actual historical document being presented by a relative (me) of the author (my grandfather) whose eye witness account of the events in Lvov, then Poland, now Ukraine, during the Holocaust made them more real and uncontestable than other information they had seen about the Holocaust, such as movies, posts, articles. Students also found trying to do place-based and name-based research about the diary interesting and like being a detective. Analyzing how it compared to a comparable event asked them to think about it more deeply from an additional perspective, and summing up the impact it all had upon them personally was a good culmination.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

NYCCTEng1121ProfLaviSpring2022JoshuaIronsPowerPoint.pptx
Alfred'sWarDiary.pdf
C:\Users\nlavi\Downloads\NYCCTEng1121ProfLaviSpring2022ArielCabreraPowerPoint.pdf

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