Welcome Everyone!

  This blog will exhibit staff development representing a purposeful topic, The Cognitive/Neuro Assessment: Problematic Concerns and Corrective Measures. The blog will act as an online enhancement to the material presented. The rationale for blogs acting as an enhancement is because they can help us learn with the sharing of others’ knowledge as evidenced by the blog, “100 Essential Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers. It categorizes tools according to their capacity for fostering interactivity, engagement, motivation, empowerment, and differentiated learning,” (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2011, p.331).

This topic encourages thought and discussion, identifies one’s current viewpoint as well as staff demonstrating the competency correctly. The topic was chosen because it appeared that all nurses were not doing these assessments correctly and many nurses were voicing their concern. Teaching and reviewing the cognitive/neurological assessment, all nurses will be able to perform it correctly. The setting of choice for a teaching experience will be staff education in a training/learning lab. This teaching plan would be developed for target audiences who are the nurses who care for the neurological patient. Performing such an assessment is necessary for nurses who care for the neurological patient in a variety of clinical settings, not only in a specialized unit (in an Inpatient Neurological Rehabilitation Unit).  

The objective is to describe and correctively perform a cognitive/neurological assessment. The rationale for performing this assessment is evidenced by assessment consistency which is the key to identifying changes in a patient’s status and identifying changes early which leads to faster treatment. Faster treatment leads to better outcomes for the patients (Rehabilitation Standard of Care, 2011). In both men and women in the United States, stroke is the leading cause of disability and is credited as the third highest cause of death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010).

We will also explore and apply different instructional technologies in designing several components which will be used for this staff development session as well as for any other courses offered. There are many, many resources available out there in CyperLand (smile) to rely on, whether it is for employment or likewise. “When emerging technologies, students experience each one as a different tool; a different place to go to do coursework, a different interface to learn,” and so forth (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2011, p. 333). We will discuss the learning objectives of our topic during our next visit.
See you soon!. . . Panthera 

                                                         References

Bradshaw, M.  J., & Lowenstein, A.  J. (2011). Innovative teaching strategies in nursing and health professions (5th Ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Stroke facts. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm

Rehabilitation Standard of Care. (2011). Retrieved from www.thedacare.org (intranet)