IDT Blog

This blog is aimed at reviewing current instructional design technology used in nursing today. It is extremely important in nursing to keep up with advances with diagnoses, treatments and technology within the field. There are many advances that are made within the field on a frequent basis that out date previous schools of thought. There are also numerous levels of professionals of which the information must be disseminated to. To do so, many types of teaching and educational strategies are employed. Strategies include journals both print and online, print and online CEUs, listserves and podcasts.

Print journals have been a popular for of education in nursing for decades. Within the past decade, online journals have become increasingly popular. The convenience of accessing online journals for research to provide evidence based practice has increased the popularity of online journals. Also, most journals allow for free online CEUs in conjunctions with the subscription. As CEUs are a requirement for licensing, this is a convenient way to keep up with needed education for renewal.

Listserves are another useful tool to assist in communicating with those who share a common practice or interest. Listserves are an avenue to exchange information and seek information from those who are at a similar level of practice. For example, if one is looking for what leading institutions are doing to reduce ventilator associated pneumonia a listserve would enable easy communication with those whom you are seeking the information from.

Podcasts, while not yet popular are a great tool for furthering education. I've utilized podcasts from the CDC and AACN to education staff on best practice for care of central lines in conjunction with other teaching strategies and have been able to reduce our central line blood stream infection rate to zero over the previous quarter. Many podcasts are free and easily accessible on the internet. Below is a link to more information on podcasts.