Electrocardiography Course Revisions: Improve Students’ Test Scores

Abstract

“In Our Unit” highlights unique practices, innovations, research, or resourceful solutions to commonly encountered problems in critical care areas and settings where critically ill patients are cared for. If you have an idea for an upcoming “In Our Unit,” send it to CRITICAL CARE NURSE, 101 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656; fax, (949) 362-2049; e-mail, ccn@aacn.org. By revising the course content and the method of content delivery, a more conducive learning environment was achieved. Each summer around the country there is an influx of new graduate nurses into the workforce. Many new nurses, as well as seasoned nurses, decide to work for the first time in units that require monitoring and analysis of electrocardiography (ECG). It becomes the responsibility of the hospital’s clinical education department or the unitbased educator to ensure adequate training of nurses in ECG recognition. My hospital has a clinical education department to which this responsibility falls. The ECG course is provided for my hospital, as well as the other hospitals within the same healthcare system. The course, offered several times a year, is required for anyone who wants to work as a nurse or monitor watcher in a unit that provides ECG monitoring. Eighteen months ago, there were many challenges with this course. The principal challenge was how to increase the overall first time pass rate. To address this issue, the techniques used to teach the course were reviewed. Suggestions from student evaluations were also carefully considered. Identifying Problem Areas Several areas in need of improvement were identified. At the time, the course was being taught by nurses with experience in reading ECGs. Because of scheduling conflicts, there were many times that the same person was not able to teach the entire course; it became necessary to have multiple instructors. The course did not use multimedia-based teaching techniques. There were 2 separate examinations, one for nurses and one for monitor watchers. In addition, the course was taught in a rather small room, which students stated was not conducive to learning.