Innovative Learning Activities to Prepare Nursing Students for the Next Generation NCLEX

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Maternity Nursing
• Curriculum Development

Background:

• Traditional nursing education may not fully prepare students for complex clinical scenarios.
• The Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) exam requires higher-order thinking skills.
• Maternity nursing content requires effective strategies for knowledge retention and application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To innovate a prelicensure maternity nursing course by integrating NGN-style questions.
• To develop cooperative learning assignments (CLAs) to enhance content mastery.
• To align new learning tools with existing course modules on maternal, newborn, and women's health.

Main Methods:

• Developed three CLAs and two Canvas quizzes aligned with course modules.
• Incorporated NGN-style case studies and questions into assessments.
• Focused on maternal, newborn, and women's health content.

Main Results:

• Students anecdotally endorsed CLAs as a positive learning experience.
• CLAs were found to be valuable for learning to set care priorities for maternity patients.
• The integration of NGN-style questions aimed to improve content mastery.

Conclusions:

• Cooperative learning assignments and NGN-style questions can enhance maternity nursing education.
• Innovative teaching strategies are crucial for preparing future nurses.
• Student feedback suggests CLAs are effective for developing critical thinking in maternity care.