Case Study Methods in Undergraduate Nursing Education

"Using case studies in teaching will assist nurse educators in promoting active learning. It will help students to make meaning of knowledge in practical settings, give them opportunity to link theory to practice and help them in developing critical thinking skills" (Popil, 2011). We wrote a module incorporating strong use of case study teaching after a curriculum review suggested we more closely align the teaching of nursing practice with nursing science. Semester five (third year) nursing students are expected to care for people using a robust foundation of theoretical knowledge and critical thinking skills. This module takes place alongside clinical practice placements. Hence teaching time needed to be grouped and meaningful as well as cognizant of external resource factors including room and staff availability as well as students' rostered shifts. These factors inform our choice to deliver case study learning opportunities and in order to support androgogical principles of self-directed and self-responsible learning. The cases are based in real world nursing experience and analyse the science, empiric and aesthetic knowledge of nursing. We believe we have created a win-win situation for students and staff alike, based on enthusiastic student feedback, an energetic level of classroom engagement, and positive results on assessment of learning. In this presentation we aim to share our experiences and generate discussion which enables us to reflect further and then refine our teaching methods to meet the complex needs of students as well as practice areas