Comprehension of a Cours\'s Subject

¶ … comprehension of a cours's subject matter. In fact, according to recent studies, student comprehension is not even directly corolated with student satisfaction, so comprehension must be seperately evaluated to enusure competency (Jordan 2000). This is especially true when it comes to a course curriculum designed for nurses that is expected to be applied to paitients. While testing is important, the evaluation does not need to seek like a true test. For this curriculum, designed to educate labor and delivery nurses in natural birth techniques, it is much more effective to use a skill-based test. The learning object sought for this evaluation is application and it represents a summative approach to the coursework.

This examination would use simulation to test the nurses ability to remember and apply various natural birth techniques and stratagies to patients who are seeking a natural birth. The simulation would involve a "birthing patient" either complaining of certain discomfort or a monitoring device showing a problem that must be fixed. The reason a simulation would work better for this type of situation is that each scenerio taught has certain signs that nurses must be aware of and understand in order to ensure the problem is addressed and the birth can proceed.

In order to make this evaluation as reliable as possible, I would first educate the nurses using very specific scenerios in the course literature. For the sake of proper memorization and comprehension, I would even venture so far as to create a pamphlet that the nurses can take home and review (Messner, 2005). I would then draft the scenario with a script for the laboring patient to follow that precisely matches the signs and red flags from the curriculum. This would ensure that the nurses are thinking through and recalling both the problem and the proper steps to fix the problem.