Course Description
Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) Review is a course designed to provide nurses that care for critically-ill patients an in-depth preparation for the CCRN certification exam. This certification is offered by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Certification Corporation and is considered the ‘gold standard’ for critical care nursing certification. I chose this course because nursing staff at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC) are highly encouraged to obtain certification in their area of specialty. Currently the certification review course offered at OSUWMC is a 3-day course and only offered once a year. I originally created this course, offered to staff in the ICUs in 2003, as a 2-day course. Over the years, the course was changed by content experts to it’s current format, which includes staff from the progressive care units and is a course for CCRN and Progressive Care Certified Nurses (PCCN), increasing to a 3-day, 2-tract course. It is very challenging for unit-based nursing leaders to support numerous staff being ‘off unit’ for education for 2 days, let alone a 3 days in a row. Historically this has limited the number of participants able to attend the once a year educational offering. Additionally, participant evaluations have reflected that staff with critical care experience feel that the portion of the course that also includes progressive care participants, is too basic and not necessary. While there is a charge for the 3-day course, it is minimal (covering printing costs and lunches). At this time, there are no other CCRN review courses are offered in the Columbus area and courses available online for nursing staff are quite costly. Content experts have been challenged by their administrative leaders to limit the number of multiple-day education offerings, to decrease non-mandatory ‘off unit’ nursing educational expenses. Critical care and progressive care content experts have requested that Health System Nursing Education take over the responsibility of this course.
Audience
The audience will be nurses working in the area of critical care at OSUWMC that have met the minimum requirements to sit for the CCRN examination. This audience expects that a review course provides them with a in-depth review of critical care concepts. Special considerations would be making sure that the content be presented in a way that is relevant, understandable, and useful to the critical care nurse, not a basic review.
I would like to develop this course to allow up to 30 students to enroll quarterly. I believe there are numerous staff members that would enroll in this course, as the number of critical care beds at OSUWMC continues to increase and a wage incentive is offered to all staff that obtain certification.
Benefits to Students
Benefits to students are many. Participants will be able to enroll in the course at numerous times throughout the year, be able to review the content multiple times, will not require approval from unit-based nurse leadership for ‘off-unit’ benefit time, and complete course work at a time that best suits their personal learning needs and lifestyle.
Challenges for Students
Online format may present challenges for some students. Individuals that have never taken an online course may find some technology a little difficult to navigate. Some participants are accustomed to dedicating 2-3 days to attend a course where they will sit and be ‘lectured to’. Online courses require more discipline, active participation and different time management skill that are required in the in-person classroom. Participants that are accustomed to the traditional classroom setting, are used to immediate response to questions, and may find delays in getting an answer to their questions frustrating. The online course, while somewhat self-directed, may have time restraints that are challenging for participants that work full-time.
Benefits to Instructor
Once the course is developed, the content could be used by numerous students, benefiting the instructor and the institution. Additionally, more time could be spent updating content versus giving ongoing lectures.
Concerns for the Instructor/Other Stakeholders
I have several concerns and questions about changing this course to an online offering. I believe the biggest challenge will be formatting the course for ‘learning’ not for ‘teaching’. I am also concerned that for this course to be truly successful, student to student learning will need to occur. How will this be accomplished? Can it be developed with minimal student to student interaction, so that participants can self-enroll at anytime. Can this course be set up as a ‘independent self-study’ continuing education offering?
I also worry that changing this course to online format will require a lot of time. Will participants expect response to all questions within a short period of time. Will I have the time to devote to administering this course? I am also concerned that other content experts will not support this change.
However, my hope is if this course is successfully developed online, it can be used as a template for other nursing specialty courses that are currently being offered at OSUWMC. Additionally, in the future, nurses working outside of OSUWMC may also be interested in this course, and could generate income to support additional online courses.
This sounds like a great idea for a course! It will fill a real need for flexibility on the part of nurses who need to take it. Will you offer this course beyond the OSUWMC audience? With the reduction (or elimination?) of printing costs and lunch with this online course, will it be offered at no cost? These are, of course, just questions for thought–nothing that needs an answer now.
Moving a course from the face-to-face format to online is usually a great opportunity for redesign. And, you’ll be able to accommodate the PCCN nurses without having to burden those who are not as interested in that material.
Regarding your concerns around traditional learners preferring the face-to-face format, you may find that the preference for the flexibility of the online format outweighs the more traditional learners. It will be interesting to see how this course is received. We can also build in reminders and motivation for the nurses to complete the course with good course design. I am wondering if there will be motivation enough for the learners to *finish* the course successfully. I can certainly see them starting it with every good intention, but going all the way to the end and completing it may be another matter. You might want to define your criteria for successful completion very thoughtfully and track pass rates thoughtfully, too. For example, it would be interesting to know whether the learner completes some units of your course, all units of your course, success rates, and the relationship of those statistics to the pass rate on the exam.
I’m looking forward to seeing this course develop and the eventual effect it has on certification for your learners!