FAC ULTY

FORUM

Teaching Health Assessment in the Virtual Classroom

Mary Lashley, PhD, RN, CS

ABSTRACT
Health assessment skills are vital to professional nursing practice.
Health assessment has traditionally
been taught using lecture, teacherdeveloped tests, practice and live
demonstration, and interactive and
computer-based learning materials.
Rapid advances in information technology during the past decade have
greatly expanded distance learning
options in higher education. Although
much nursing education now uses
the Internet, there has been limited
use of the Web to teach psychomotor
and clinical skills. This article describes how online instruction can be
integrated into a health assessment
course to teach physical examination
skills.
The development of instructional
videos that can be digitally streamed
onto the Web for ready and repeated
access can also enhance online learning of technical and clinical skills.
Student evaluation of this Web-enhanced course revealed that online
assignments enabled them to pace
their learning, thereby promoting
greater flexibility and independence.
Students were able to master the
technical skills of working online with
Received: June 22, 2004
Accepted: January 19, 2005
Dr. Lashley is Associate Professor, Towson University, Department of Nursing, Towson, Maryland.
Address correspondence to Mary Lashley, PhD, RN, CS, Associate Professor,
Towson University, Department of Nursing, Burdick Hall, Room 116, 8000 York
Road, Towson, MD 21252-0001; e-mail:
mlashley@towson.edu.

348

minimal difficulty and reported that

working online was no more stressful
than attending class. The most helpful aspect of the online course was the
instructor-developed video that was
digitally streamed online.

ealth assessment is a critical

skill for nurses and is required
for any undergraduate nursing program. It is often a requirement
for graduate study and is a foundational skill for students entering advanced practice fields. Traditionally,
health assessment skills have been
taught using teacher-developed tests,
practice and live demonstration, and
more recently, interactive models,
CD-ROMs, and other computer-based
learning materials (Mansen & Haak,
1996).
During the past decade, rapid
advances in information technology
have expanded distance learning options in higher education (Cravener,
1999). Despite the large amount of literature devoted to information technology in nursing education (Mallow
& Gilje, 1999), few articles have examined the use of Web-based learning
in the development of skills in health
assessment.

Motivations for WebEnhanced Learning

Having taught a health assessment course in an undergraduate
baccalaureate nursing program for
19 years, I wondered whether a Webbased model of instruction could be
an alternative but effective method
for teaching health assessment skills.

Several factors motivated me to integrate Web-enhanced learning into my

established course.
Registered Nurses

While many of my students are

new to nursing, I also teach RNs
who are returning to pursue baccalaureate education; they are experienced in the field and have a greater
baseline knowledge of health assessment. These students tend to
appreciate and benefit from more
individualized learning experiences,
greater flexibility in scheduling, and
an opportunity to self-pace their instruction and engage in more independent and interactive learning
experiences. According to a study
by Thompson and Sheckley (1997),
RNs tend to prefer a learning environment in which cooperative learning is encouraged and expectations
for learning are high.
Online Database Resources

In my research on the Web, I have

observed that there are vast online
database resources in the field of
health assessment. Medical and nursing schools across the United States
have developed excellent Web sites
for learning and practicing health
assessment skills. Rather than simply exposing students to Web sites
in class, I wanted to give students an
opportunity to explore these sites at
their own pace and increase their access to the wealth of educational resources available online.
Critical Thinking

As an educator, I longed to shift my

focus from content delivery to develJournal of Nursing Education