Indiana State University Newsroom

Undergraduate nursing students at Indiana State University say technology, including a video software program that records lectures for later review, is helping them master complex curriculum and stay on track in completing a four-year degree.

"Many of us are visual learners and taking notes sometimes doesn't cut it, but if I go back and watch the video along with my notes, it improves my chances of success," said Gayle Goodrick, a senior from Riley.

Indiana State uses McGraw Hill's Tegrity Campus, an automated system that allows students to view recorded lectures, search and bookmark content, take notes, and collaborate with instructors and fellow classmates. The system is used in traditional, hybrid and online courses. It works on a personal computer, Mac or mobile device.

"This technology is used to support and further strengthen valuable classroom time," said Marcee Everly, assistant professor and chair of the baccalaureate nursing program. "It allows content to be explored in a variety of other ways while in the classroom setting, through case studies and other application techniques."

Like many nursing students at Indiana State and elsewhere, Goodrick is a non-traditional student. As a married mother of four, she has to balance family and her classes, but said Tegrity helps ensure that she doesn't fall behind in her pursuit of a bachelor's degree and a license as a registered nurse.

"The nursing program is rigorous and things like Tegrity make our success that much more achievable," Goodrick said.

Megan McGuire, a senior nursing major from Hillsboro used Tegrity during an obstetrics class which Everly teaches.

"Everybody says they learned the most from Marcee's class and I think Tegrity definitely helped," McGuire said. "With Tegrity, you can watch a lecture and pause it whenever you need to do take notes."

Everly credited Tegrity will helping to improve the performance of recent ISU graduates on the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nurses.

Nearly 93 percent of December bachelor's degree nursing graduates from Indiana State who took the test for an Indiana nursing license passed, an improvement over previous years and a figure that exceeds the most recent national rate of 87.89 percent.

ISU nursing faculty point out that students also gain hands-on inter-professional experience by working alongside students and health care professionals from a variety of fields at a simulation center housed in the former intensive care unit of Terre Haute's Union Hospital.

The simulation center uses life-like electronic "patients" that mimic actual human conditions. Students from other health care programs at Indiana State as well as Ivy Tech Community College and the Indiana University School of Medicine also utilize the center. The three higher education institutions are partners with the hospital and other health care, economic development and government entities in the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative, which is working to strengthen Terre Haute as a leading center for development and implementation of health care practices to meet the unique challenges of medically underserved rural areas.

Jessica Zangmeister, a junior nursing major from Fairborn, Ohio, said the simulation center "makes it very lifelike and it's an interesting way to learn."

ISU's College of Nursing, Health, and Human Services is working to ensure continued student success by revamping its baccalaureate nursing curriculum, Everly said.

"While the transition to our revised curriculum will occur over the next academic year, we have already begun implementing many of the components," Everly said.

Those changes that are already being implemented include the use of patient simulators and Tegrity Campus, and promoting the use of critical thinking and application of knowledge in the classroom rather than lecture alone, she said.

Revised curriculum, structure, content, and processes support and incorporate established professional standards, guidelines, and competencies as identified by the National League for Nursing and the Institute of Medicine recommendations for core knowledge required of all health care professionals and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing essentials for baccalaureate education, Everly said. Competencies developed for the revised curriculum improve patient safety and support safe, quality health care delivery, she said.

Undergraduate nursing programs in Indiana State's College of Nursing, Health, and Human Services are accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission and the Indiana State Board of Nursing.

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Other/Media-Services/Tegrity-software/i-ZgHGQkz/0/L/041312laptopnursingsoftware-L.jpg - Indiana State University student Amanda Milton uses McGraw-Hill's Tegrity Campus to review a lecture by Marcee Everly, assistant professor of nursing. (ISU/Tony Campbell)

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/photos/i-hFrcSWx/0/L/i-hFrcSWx-L.jpg - Jessica Zangmeister, a junior nursing major at Indiana State University, applies a bag-and-mask oxygen respirator to the simulated patient at the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative Simulation Center, housed in the former intensive care unit of Terre Haute's Union Hospital. (ISU/Tony Campbell)

Contact: Marcee Everly, assistant professor and chair, baccalaureate nursing department, College of Nursing, Health, and Human Services, Indiana State University, 812-237-3688 or marcee.everly@indstate.edu

Writer: Dave Taylor, media relations director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3743 or dave.taylor@indstate.edu