The Impact of Blogging on Graduate Nursing Student Learning and Satisfaction in Advanced Pharmacology

Abstract: Teaching clinical reasoning and critical thinking can be a complex endeavor for the nurse educator. One frequently utilized method is the case study which helps to bridge the “theory-practice divide” by promoting hypothesis generation and problem solving using actual or simulated scenarios. An emerging technological tool used in higher education which promotes student interactive communication and collaboration is blogging. Faculty members have used semi-structured blogging as a teaching methodology to promote critical thinking and synthesis. Blogging has been successfully used in higher education but less frequently used in nursing education. In combination with a case study methodology, interactive blogging intuitively should result in increased student learning and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an interactive evolving case study assignment using blogging on learning and satisfaction. Eighty-four graduate nursing students participated in the study in an advanced pharmacology course. The research used a cross-over quasi-experimental design. Paired-sample and independent t testing was used to evaluate learning by determining differences in grades on the two case studies for each group and comparing grades on the two case studies across groups. Blogging grades were found to be significantly different from the grades of non bloggers, t of 2.197 (p = 0.31). Overall, students indicated satisfaction with the blogging case study experience. Additional evolving case study assignments using blogging in a variety of other courses are being evaluated.