Nursing faculty highlights engaged student learning at regional conference

Assistant Professor of Nursing Jeanmarie Koonts presented a poster at the 17th Annual South Eastern Nurse Educator Symposium in Wilmington, N.C.

Assistant Professor of Nursing Jeanmarie Koonts presented a poster at the 17th Annual South Eastern Nurse Educator Symposium (SENSES) in Wilmington, North Carolina.

This annual regional conference promotes the advancement of nursing education through podium and break-out presentations, posters and networking with local and regional leaders.

Koonts gave a poster presentation highlighting one of the engaged learning strategies she uses in the NRS2200 Health Assessment course. Utilizing a blank template, students build a puzzle person throughout the semester by earning a focused assessment body system part each week. Once the puzzle is “complete” students explore the role of culture and religion in holistic assessment by working through designated case studies and class discussions led by Brain Pennington, director of Elon’s Center for Religion, Culture and Society. Next, Koonts challenges them to decorate their puzzles in a religious or cultural group they identify with or in their image and likeness.

The result is a scaffolded, semester-long engaged learning activity that grows students didactically, kinestically, socially and emotionally, and which helps students to “see” and appreciate their classmates as well as, the diverse and unique client population they will be caring for as professional nurses.