B3

Improving Feedback Processes in Nursing Using Virtual Simulation

The student-preceptor relationship is essential to pre-graduate nursing students’ (PGNS) successful transition to practice. However, ineffective student-preceptor feedback processes remain a challenge, impacting communication, patient care, and safety. To address the learning needs of PGNS and preceptors, we are co-developing a virtual gaming simulation (VGS) to enhance the feedback process in clinical placements.

PGNS and preceptors’ experiences will inform the VGS, focusing on providing and receiving feedback essential to support PGNS’ transition into professional practice. Phase One of the study involved conducting focus groups with PGNS and nurse preceptors from Ontario and British Columbia. Thematic analysis identified key themes, enabling a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities related to the preceptor-student feedback process. At the time of this submission, preliminary findings from PGNS interviews show that communication between preceptors and PGNS involves trust-building, feedback reciprocity, and independence, with effective mentorship fostering confidence and resilience.

Findings from Phase One will guide the development of the VGS experience, which is grounded in Peplau’s (1997) Theory of Interpersonal Relations (Washington, 2013). Like Peplau’s nurse-patient relationship model, PGNS must be actively involved in decision-making, speaking up, and navigating relationships with power differentials (Burgess et al., 2020; Myers & Chou, 2016). This theoretical framework will create the foundation for the VGS to ensure learners develop essential skills for clinical practice.

The VGS will equip PGNS and preceptors with transferable communication and feedback skills, contributing to developing competent healthcare professionals. This resource will support PGNS to develop transferable clinical skills for placement and independent practice after graduation. PGNS and preceptors will benefit from this collaborative learning opportunity, as they can learn from each other’s perspectives in these situations to foster mutual respect and an understanding of the intricacies involved in feedback processes. This VGS will simulate real-world clinical scenarios, allowing students to learn and practice giving and receiving feedback in a risk-free environment. 

This innovative approach addresses gaps in nursing education and prepares students to handle real-life situations more effectively, leading to improved patient outcomes. The VGS will be embedded into BScN and post-diploma courses at TMU to support students in clinical practice.

Presenters

The Power of Pivoting: How a Microaggression Transformed Our Podcast Production

In this session, I will share an experience from fall 2024, teaching Advanced Podcasting/Radio Documentary JRN801/JN8407. During production of Season 3 of our class podcast We Met U When..., a student producer experienced a microaggression at the end of an interview. It was captured in the recording. It was a painful and embarrassing situation for the student but she - and the class, collaboratively - decided to pivot from the original subject and instead, produce an episode about microaggressions. The focus became the impact on the student affected, and her classmates - some of whom were moved to tears hearing the original recording.

My approach in this course builds on the concept of radical collegiality, which challenges the idea that students are not colleagues (Lubicz-Nawrocka, 2018) and I continue to find that it does indeed enhance student engagement, learning and preparedness.

All students in the class became deeply invested in this story, not only the group that was directly involved in the production. It was emotional, unforgettable and empowering for students. The producers of this episode just won an Award of Excellence from the BEA Festival of Media Arts and are now raising funds to attend to collect their award in-person.

Presenters

Engaging Students in Active Learning with eText Readings through GenAI

In many courses, students are assigned to read textbooks outside of class to supplement lectures. When unguided or ungraded, students’ reading can become a passive process with varying uptake rates and little instructor visibility into the learning that actually occurs. What if we can leverage generative AI that is directly embedded into a textbook to actively engage students with content and gain insight into their learning?

This session will demonstrate how to engage students in active learning with their eText reading through instructor-led, AI-supported interactions directly within the eText. In doing so, two evidence-based learning practices are applied and discussed: elaboration and retrieval practice.

Elaboration involves explaining the function and reason of some operating mechanism and actively generating personally-relevant content that builds upon course materials (e.g., McDaniel, & Donnelly, 1996). This technique has been shown to improve test scores compared to passive reading (Dunlosky et al., 2013). To promote elaboration, students are given prompts to engage with the embedded AI tool to explain how things work (through elaborative interrogation) and to generate practical applications to their own lives. Retrieval practice involves giving interspersed low-stakes testing as students read to draw on their recall - a technique that has been consistently shown to benefit recall and comprehension compared to passive reading (Roediger et al., 2011). To enact retrieval practice, students are given prompts that ask them to be quizzed on open-ended questions with ongoing interactive feedback, hints, and explanations.

After engaging in these interactions, students respond to several complementary metacognitive questions that are woven directly into the eText. Responses are analyzed to further drive in-class discussions and key concept reviews in class.

This innovative practice has led to higher levels of reading that are more consistently distributed throughout the semester, complemented by positive survey feedback from students on their learning experience. On the whole, this practice is a promising advancement to traditional textbook readings and auto-graded homework. Practical considerations of implementation such as accessibility, cost, and academic integrity will be discussed.

Presenters