Content area
Full Text
Dr. Kaylor and Dr. Strickland are Assistant Professors, The Capstone College of Nursing, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
The nursing education learning environment has undergone much evolution over the years as evidence-based practice initiatives, such as the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies (2014), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) TeamSTEPPS program (n.d.), and The American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice(2008), have become embedded into curricula and have helped to shape ways instructional content is presented to students. However, one challenge for faculty is how to incorporate such initiatives into already heavy, content-laden curricula in a manner that continues to support learner-centered teaching environments. The innovative use of unfolding case studies may assist nurse educators in overcoming the challenge of teaching necessary instructional content while also incorporating evidence-based practice initiatives.
The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative technique for using unfolding case studies that teaches undergraduate novice nursing students aspects of evidence-based practice initiatives, rather than acting as a summative evaluation of their knowledge. An overarching framework for the design of unfolding case studies is offered, yet the authors propose that instead of faculty writing or selecting scenarios for students, they should instead challenge students to directly and creatively develop their own. In this learner-centered teaching environment, students are able to freely take ownership and direction of their learning, which is often based off of personal interests and curiosity-based inquiry.
Unfolding Case Studies
One should note that case studies and unfolding case studies are two separate entities. A case studyis simply described as any type of descriptive, exploratory analysis of a person or an event (Rowles & Russo, 2009). An unfolding case study, on the other hand, much like a simulation, is an idea that "evolves over time in a manner that is unpredictable to the learner. New situations develop and are revealed with each encounter" (National League for Nursing, 2010, para. 1). The AACN's (2008) Essentials of Baccalaureate Educationsuggests implementing the use of learning strategies such as unfolding case studies as interactive instructional methods for threading general education concepts throughout nursing curriculum. A well-written and well-executed unfolding...