Nursing--Quantitative Reasoning CASLO Report

Transcription

1 Nursing--Quantitative Reasoning CASLO Report 1. Please select the UHMC program for this assessment from the list below. Count 7 Registered Nurse 2. After reviewing the Faculty Report on CASLO Evidence, the correlating course outline, and the Quantitative Reasoning rubric, please indicate your response to the following statements:the "minimally passing" evidence demonstrates student achievement of the Quantitative Reasoning CASLO at a level of skill appropriate for the degree. No % Yes % 3. After reviewing the Faculty Report on CASLO Evidence, the correlating course outline, and the Quantitative Reasoning rubric, please indicate your response to the following statements:based on the evidence presented, students in the program generally develop and demonstrate the quantitative reasoning skills needed as graduates of the program.

2 No % Yes % 4. CASLO assessment methods (tests, projects, assignments, capstones, portfolios) should prompt students to demonstrate exit-level skills that are relevant to the needs of graduates. What suggestions do you have for improving the test, assignment, or project used for this assessment activity? no take home exams The assignment would more relevant to the student, if real world examples were used, such as in case studies, scenarios, examples of nursing procedures. It seems that there needs to be more opportunity for students to produce graphs in addition to reading them. Statistics seems like the best of the current math offerings, but I thought that the evidence would be more convincing if applied to the Nursing discipline. Also, it looked like the stat class could provide more assignments that ask students to read and comprehend the mathematical information presented in graphs, tables, and charts. It seems like these could be easily incorporated into several of the assignments. Students might be given more assignments in which they use statistics skills to support a claim, especially on in support of a particular course of action since this replicates how a nurse might apply mathematical understanding and skill on the job. I don't think a take home exam is appropriate as the assignment in which they demonstrate the learning that qualifies for a passing grade. I marked No to question 2 because some minimally passing criteria did not seem rigorous enough: For question #5 students need to achieve 4 out of 6 answers to meet minimally passing criteria. Of the 6 questions associated with #5, 1 & 2 require a very similar skill, and 4 out of 6 is only 67%, which is below the normal minimally passing standard of 70%. For question #9, c, d, & e are linked, so a wrong answer to c makes d and e automatically wrong = 3/6 = 50%. I marked No to question #3 because of the take home final exam. Take home, open book tests, in my opinion, do meet the standard of rigor in assessing the ability of students to meet the learning outcomes of the course.

3 Probably fewer take-home tests and assignments including more graphs, histogram, etc. would be helpful. Nursing graduates demonstrating the application of research methodology -- specifically, descriptive statistical methods -- to data collected which is relevant to nursing concerns (e.g. patient population studies, clinical drug trials), analyze data, determine its significance, and ably depict research findings. 5. UHMC programs strive to design curriculum and learning experiences that result in graduates who are prepared to pursue academic, career, and personal goals. What suggestion do you have for improving curriculum, instruction, or student services to better develop the quantitative reasoning skills needed of graduates from this program? more practice at actually constructing graph and tables Integrate within the nursing program, quantitative analysis skills that are relevant to the registered nurse in industry. The math presented is needed at the Bachelor's Degree level and not necessarily for the RN or PN level. The content of the course is excellent, and from the description of teaching methods it seems that the concepts are demonstrated repeatedly, both in class with instructor and peer support, as well as with homework assignments. This sounds like a interesting, dynamic class. The final exam would be more rigorous if it were not take home or open book. Normally, minimally passing criteria is set at at least 70%. Assessing minimally passing standards for individual questions would make more sense if the parts of multiple-answer questions were divided into mutually exclusive groups. One way to do this would be to give partial credit for the parts of each concept being assessed. If there is demand, it would be good to have a Nursing cohort for Statistics. If there are enough students who need to begin at the developmental level, this cohort could go through the Statway curriculum. (MATH 85 --> MATH 115) If there are enough students who place at MATH 115, we can have a single course cohort instead of or in addition to the one mentioned above. The statway path consisting of MATH 85 and MATH 115 can be an effective pathway for our nursing students. I thought the idea of a statistics course designed specifically for Nursing students and offered as a cohort is a great idea. Students interested in Nursing should be encouraged toward Statway if they test at the developmental level. Application of Statway pathways in quantitative reasoning exercises. Could some of the data be relative to nursing concerns (e.g. falls, infections, tracking blood glucose levels, client adherence to treatment modalities)?

4 6. CASLO Assessment activities are designed to help programs align curriculum and instruction with the needs of students. How can this assessment practice be improved? Could have used a student voice and an advisory committee member voice. Discussing and updating each CASLO focus more frequently, perhaps bi-annually or so. Design an assignment where students will design a regimen of medication, hourly, based on the medication, body weight, disease process, etc. and the calculations needed to support this regimen. or other industry type calculations that nurses in practice perform. More careful selection of the "exit-level" course. It might have been helpful to actually look at MATH 115 and NURS 360. Also, it's important to have people from the industry outside of our campus at these meetings. It was great to see that a few of the questions were specific to healthcare. Having a few more would really help nursing students to link theory to practice. This is essential for healthcare professionals because of the high stakes of the work. Perhaps the stats instructor could view the blueprint or test plan for math aptitude assessment component as offered by Testing of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS), the pre-entry testing instrument nursing students must successfully pass. This might be important in the stats instructor ascertaining what statistical-related questions are on the math portion of TEAS? I enjoyed our discussion! Next time, please invite nurses from "the field" and students soon to graduate or recently graduated. 7. Please share any other comments or suggestions that may be helpful in improving the quantitative reasoning skills of students in this program. Mahalo for the opportunity to be part of the CASLO assessment process. Mahalo. Thank you to everyone for actually looking at the evidence BEFORE the meeting!!!! :) set practice and assessment homework and tests in nursing related scenarios It would be great to have several nurses who practice daily, the skills we are assessing here. They could confirm the appropriate level of quantitative analysis needed for registered nurses as well as examples of how it can be presented. Likewise, a student would be able to offer valuable insight on this assignment example and its relevance.

5 I am encouraged to learn of the progression of our students from post-high school formative math to college-level application of math at our university. Thank you for all you do! Meeting notes: We can view the CASLOs in 2 ways: 1) Do students have QR skills at the sophomore level? 2) Do students have the QR skills required for nursing at the appropriate level? Nursing students, although they may be nurses for 45 years, they may change specialties several times. The math is less important than the ability to analyze the data and the numbers. More than knowing the specific numbers/calculations, nursing students need to know what s reasonable! Ability to read numbers, logically follow procedures. Work the numbers to apply something very critical. Students need to evaluate data. They don t need to be the researcher who generated it, but they need to be able to correctly analyze and use it. Nursing students tend to be able to do the math, until you put it in the context of saving a patient s life. Students need to be able to pick out the important information from a description of a patient. Should MATH 115 be a pre-requisite for the ADN program? 115 is required for the BSN, so if a student is planning to go on to the Bachelor s Program, they are directed to 115. They are advised hard for this so it s there for you if/when you need it. What about a math cohort specific to nursing students? It can start at the dev level and finish at 115. A Statway cohort could work well for this. How much graphical representation is necessary? Is it enough for students to be able to punch the right numbers into the right website to generate the graph? Is it enough for students to be able to do the basics by hand, and then be given the tools to solve the problem using technology? It seems like there is more interpreting vs. actually creating the graphical representations. Statistics is ideally suited to having student support an argument, which is good practice for nurses. They need to be able to support or reject a claim. We re unsure if it is reasonable that the Final Exam is take home. Does this really demonstrate their knowledge? Is that up to WASC standards? It may be ok provided that there is an in-class component as well.