Freenursetutor.com: A Movement for Innovation in Nursing Education

Have you seen our nursing videos at freenursetutor.com?

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:48:00 +0000

The beginning of school, marks the beginning of new information. In health care this can be very overwhelming. Your nursing or health care students will benefit from using videos. Visit us here.

Help your students learn!!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:02:00 +0000

With the new school year approaching, this may be a good time to consider how you might be able to make your teaching more engaging and more effective for both you and your students. We are confident that if you try using FreeNurseTutor as a supplement to your teaching you will soon see the benefits. Students themselves will let you know that FreeNurseTutor's interactive computer based activities do improve learning.

Just letting your students know about freenursetutor.com can be a useful way to help stimulate interest and support learning. Students can access many interesting and useful nursing and healthcare learning activities with no login required. But the real power of FreeNurseTutor is the capability for instructors to customize or create your own interactive computer based learning activities to use with your students, year after year. It's not as hard as you problably think. Some of you have already started to use FreeNurseTutor by importing activities from the Library to modify or by creating activities starting with your own content. For the rest of you, this would be a great time to create your first interactive learning activity.

One of the easier activities to create is the BlankIt activity. (Many of you will recognize this as a type of CLOZE activity.) Don't underestimate the value of this type of activity. Students really like it and I actually had my own students asking me to create more. You should think of one difficult concept or critical teaching point that your students have a difficult time learning and remembering. Copy or create a short paragraph with the most important information included. To see some examples of the BlankIt learning activity from FreeNurseTutor, click this link-BlankIt To create your own BlankIts for your students, this is all you need to do:
1. You must have a MySchool Account. (It's free. Enroll from the front page of freenursetutor.com)
2. Click LOGIN-MySchool from freenursetutor.com to log into your instructor account
3. Click on My Activities from the top menu. Then click BlankIt from the dropdown menu.
4. Click on Create New BlankIt. Follow the instructions on the Create BlankIt page.
5. After clicking Save, the new activity will listed under My Activities > BlankIt.
6. Students can now play this activity anytime and any place with Internet access by logging into MySchool using your school's Student User ID and Password.

Become Published! Help add a new game

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:59:00 +0000

I am also still trying to create new millionaire games for FreeNurseTutor, but I can use some help. Millionaire Games are one of our most popular learning activities with students and a very effective educational tool. The new games will be placed in the freenursetutor library for instructors and students to use.

Please think about contributing one or two multiple choice questions related to Respiratory and/or Musculoskeletal with the correct answers marked. If you provide rational/feedback to incorrect and correct answers, the questions will be that much more valuable. (However, ratonals are not necessary.) All you need to do to participate is send us one or more submissions from the Suggestion Box at freenursetutor.com Thanks to everyone for submissions already received, but we still need at least twenty more questions with answers to complete the games.
Note: Do not submit copyrighted materials. Questions and answers can be based on textbooks and other published materials, but the wording must be you own.

Thanks to everyone for helping to make this website successful.

Changes are starting to happen!!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:56:00 +0000

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. Now don't you start thinking that I have been basking in the sun and drinking little foofoo drinks! I have been hard at work moving Freenursetutor to an upgraded server, which will allow for more services to be offered. One of our newest additions to the site is a video section that will be growing as time goes on.
Please check back often to see what new things are happening at Freenursetutor.com. Remember, this is a free site with many activities for students! Don't forget that Instructors can sign up for free accounts that allow them to create activities for their students. So come on over a visit us now....freenursetutor.com

Change is in the air!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:52:00 +0000

Well, it has been a while since I have posted on my blog, but let me tell you this, it has been a busy period. I have been working with the coders to help streamline the sign in process. I am hoping that everyone finds it easy to register and utilize the site after registration. When you go to freenursetutor.com you can register as a new instructor by following the link in the upper right hand corner. It will take you to the registration page. When you have completed the registration, you will need to activate the account by replying to an email sent to you with the email that you provided. Be sure to check your spam mail as your email program may have sent it to that folder. If that happens just mark it as not spam and you should never have that problem again.

You can then log in and begin creating activities! If you have a problem just email us through the contact page which you can access through the menu. Let us know if you have a problem. We have more exciting things coming in the near future so keep in touch!

Fill in the __________.

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Hey, remember those fill in the blank activities? Well, that may seem like an old and outdated thought, but my students loved the activity when there were hard concepts to grasp. Pharmacology has always been the monster "under the bed" for nursing students. There's not monster, it is just an unknown. I found that this type of activity helped my students during clinical, when I would fire those all too familiar questions: What does it do? What are the side effects? After a class discussion in which a new and important drug was covered I would create a quick "at the med cart" activity. It was a fill in the blank or "cloze" activity. I would give a quick paragraph of information that If you understood and remembered these things, you would make me very happy on clinical day! They loved the activity, and I actually saw the stress start to decrease during the "med pass". Now we all know that stress can be the biggest obstacle to effective learning...So this a win-win. I was happy and the student had a good learning experience! So sign up and try some of the activities that I created. Remember you can import them into your school account and even change the wording if you like! Let me know if they work for you.

What a nice way to end the week.

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:32:00 +0000

It is amazing what fixing a couple of problems can do! If people can log in, they can use a site....fancy that idea! Freenursetutor is now blossoming in one day! I have had double the traffic in one day! Well, let me tell you this...we are going to be adding some nice help for educators who are getting their feet wet, but again...time is needed, so keep your eyes open and follow this blog for updates. Have a nice Friday night!

Sometimes you fly and sometimes you just sit and say...HMMMMM?

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:25:00 +0000

Well, sometimes you feel that everything that you touch is just SUPER! Then you get brought back to earth. That is my AHAA moment today. Somebody wrote to me and said, I am trying to sign on but can't. That one email put us on a problem finding trek, and AHAAA we found a major problem. It has a temporary fix at this moment, but will be solidly fixed in the future. So Sign On and see how things work...and please if things aren't working let us know. We cannot meet our goals if we do not get feedback. As much as many of you had problems signing on, my computer let me sign on. That probably has to do with my computer and settings that I have established with the website. Never be timid about letting us know.

I know we are going to have a few growing pains. At this point, we are trying to revamp newnursetutor to incorporate it into freenursetutor. With growth comes issues that need to be confronted. We need people to let us know what is good and what is an issue. We have coders that are working with us to accomplish our ultimate goal. I hope that we can get more people to participate with us to help grow a site that could change the way we approach nursing education. There is power in numbers, I do believe. I think that what nursing educators do has an enormous effect on so many, and we will never know the true magnitude of our educational efforts. Why not make this branch of education a solid force. That is my goal, and I hope that others will join me, or at least benefit from our efforts. So jump in the water is fine...and keep us aware!

Google Wave...What do you think?

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:24:00 +0000

Well, I now have a google wave....Now I need to think about how this very cool tool can be used. I am thinking that it would be a perfect tool to have an ongoing freenursetutor seminar. I could put up the activity and do a little explanation...you could reply or ask questions. Everyone could collaborate, with their own little "brain storming" ideas. It could be quite interesting. So let me know if you are interested. I have 25 invitations to give out for anyone that would like to "wave". If you have any other ideas, let me know....this is what it is all about with freenursetutor!

Don't be afraid! Create an Assessment!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Well, today is the day! Now it is time to start an assessment activity on freenursetutor.com. If you do not have an account, make one now when you go to the website. If you have problems email me at diane@freenursetutor.com. Do Not Be Afraid. When you make one activity you will feel empowered to change your classroom voice! YOU CANNOT BREAK ANYTHING. You account is yours and you can try and practice as much as you want. Just remember that you must pass the student password out to the class.

Return to the Login section on the top right at freenursetutor.com .
You come to the login page
Log in as an Instructor by entering your User ID and Password.
Click Login.
The Instructor home page opens. (This is also the Search Activities page.)
Choose MyActivities from the menu across the top.
Select Assessment.
Choose either male or female from the type of assessment.
The assessment activitiy opens.
Enter the Title and Description. The wording you use will appear on search pages to help students and instructors identify the activity and see a brief description of the content.
Select a topic by clicking Select Topic and then clicking on the desired topic listed in the drop-down menu. Tip: You may have to scroll to see all possible topics.
Type additional patient information into the Important Assessment Information text box. Instructors can enter any information here that they would like to include for students. Examples of this would be a summary of patient history, an introduction to a scenario, additional instructions for the student, etc. 4 Type data into the Assessment Information boxes. It is recommended that you enter information in all boxes, but not required. Text that is entered here will appear when students move the cursor over each assessment location on the figure.Tip: You can save time and effort by Importing the Normal Female Assessment or Normal Male Assessment from the Library. These Library activities contain normal values in each text box. You can then change only the information that is not normal for your new patient. Don’t forget to change the Title and Description before saving if you start with the Library activity.
In the text box labeled Instructor’s Written Assessment, type a narrative assessment for the assessment data you entered for this activity. The Instructor’s Written Assessment will be used by the student to compare with their own written assessment. It is a good idea for the instructor’s input to match clinical expectations. This will aid in preparing the student for the clinical experience and provide an alternative way for the student to practice assessment skills.
Check the E-mail to instructor box, by clicking on the checkbox, only if you want students to email you the completed Assessment form for a grade or points.(Students will not be able to view the Instructor’s written assessment if this box is checked.) When this box is checked, the results can be sent by a student to the email address entered in your Profile. The name of the activity and the student’s name(as entered by the student) will appear in the subject line of the email.Tip: This feature gives instructors the opportunitiy to give points or a grade for a completed Assessment activity. The emailed reports can be graded and easily returned to the student by reply email to the student’s email address that they have entered. To add a comment, points or letter grade just click Reply, then type in your comments before clicking Send from your email service. You can add color or emphasis to your comments by using the editor that comes with your email service.
Important: The Compare button will not appear on the student page and students will not be able to view the instructor’s written assessment if the Email to instructor box is checked. Checking this box allows the activity to be used as a graded activity, but not as an effective practice activity.
Check the Print box, by clicking on the checkbox, only if you want students to print the completed form for a grade or points.
Important: The Compare button will not appear on the student page and students will not be able to view the instructor’s written assessment if the Print box is checked. Checking this box allows the activity to be used as a graded activity, but not as an effective practice activity.
Click the Visible for students checkbox to allow students to access the activity.
Click Save before leaving the page or all work will be lost. Tip: You can return to make changes to any part of the game that you have created by clicking MyActivities, Assessment, and then Edit.

Have Fun!!! Let me know how it works, of if you need more help. Remember the link to the instructor guide:
FNT Instructor Guide

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:15:00 +0000

Alright, it is time to get into to the creative mode! Can you imagine this...You are talking about the respiratory system...How it works...How gases exchange...Why you can hear the breath sounds...What effect the Oxygen (or lack of) has on the body. And you say, as you load a picture of a patient from freenursetutor...Tell me what you want to assess on our patient, remember she has pneumonia and she is having some major breathing issues. Someone yells out, check her lung sounds. You ask them to come and mouseover where they will assess that. They come to the front and mouseover the right, upper, posterior fields and an assessment appears stating that she has crackles, a rate of 30 and rust colored sputum. You ask the class why this could be appearing in this patient. Many answers are given...some good...some not so good. All right you should be seeing where I am going with this. You are giving a chance for application of "stuff" that they are trying to just write in their notes and memorize! They weren't going to that dark and scary place called "critical thinking" after all this is an A&P lecture!
Well, the joke is on them because you then continue to look at the head where you find out that she is confused....hmmmmm...Why is that? Pretty soon you see a lot of students put down their cell phones (which they thought you could not see) and they are looking perplexed at what it happening. Then by the time you get to the pulse rate, which seems a little high, you are starting to get some answers that are starting to show promise! You are feeling quite warm and fuzzy inside...and start to imagine that these students may actually be showing some potential, and it is only the fourth week into the program...They aren't supposed to be thinking like this already, WOW. The amazing thing is that they look so pleased with themselves that they are discovering the hidden meaning to life...that's what it feels like to them because they are taking a little bit of knowledge and experimenting with applying it. You have just empowered your students to think one step further, away from the "safe" place of memorization.

Many times we convey the facts, and then more facts and more facts. At the end of the lecture, if they can give us some of the high points back....Success. But they have those facts in their books, and if we tell them to memorize them, most will. What they need us to do is show them how to process that information in a meaningful "Nursing" way. The more opportunities we give them, the easier it becomes. Clinical and simulated lab time is really not enough. In fact many students are so intimidated in clinicals that they cannot even access what they know. Our task is to find ways to practice the thought process in ways that do not threaten the student. This is one example.

In my next blog, I will give you the recipe for creating a patient that can be used in such a way. You can use this in so many scenarios. You do not have to wait until you have covered the assessment module, let them start to see the importance of what they are learning. They will learn more effectively! So, in the next day I will give you the information that you can use as a recipe card. See you soon.

Now I am wondering what people are thinking....

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:09:00 +0000

I have had quite an increase in the past two days on freenursetutor.com! Now this is my next chore, and I need some input. I need to figure out what is the best way to start to get instructors to move to the next step...creating activities for their students. Ideas that I have right now are to post the manual on webpages that can be accessed from the site, create youtube tutorials/demos on how to create the activities. What do you think? Let me know what you think related to needs of the students. What would be helpful on the blog, to address. Please comment or email. This project needs the thoughts and ideas of everyone.

I am flying higer than a kite!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:52:00 +0000

Now that statement really dates me, but I really don't care at this point! Today I have had a 200% increase of people reading my blog and that is too cool for words! Yes, I said "Cool" and I meant it! We have had a nice increase of instructors on freenursetutor.com also. I feel like we are creating something really good. When I say "We", that is us....You me and everyone else that is participating in this initiative. I love seeing others think about how changes can be made to improve upon what is already good. And I really love when you have instructors come out of their comfort zone and maybe....just maybe...take the leap into the world that our students have been brought up in! I am feeling as though we can really make a difference in nursing education. Remember this is about "Us"....Everyone who is taking the time to read this blog...Everyone who is signing on to the site...And everyone that has reached out to me in the last week offering assistance...Which I hope we will be able to use shortly. Thanks for jumping on board!
Talk to you later about some activity that I want to show you how to use.

Have you ever asked yourself "What am I doing here?"

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:52:00 +0000

I just had a colleague email me and say "I went to the site but before I sign up, what can I create?"
So I thought hmmmm, Diane you are not always so wise...why would someone sign up for something, they don't ever understand? So, here is a new addition to the site, an explanation of what you can do and create for your students Click here to find out more.

I am a TWITTERER!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:47:00 +0000

I do have to admit, I have not used Twitter before. Now is that a bad thing? I didn't think so, but it sure seems like everybody is doing it! I went on twitter to see if there was a good way to get the word out about our site (I guess that would be tweet, tweet!) I was amazed at the numbers of nurses and nursing students that I found. Unfortunately if they are not followiing me they will not see my posts. So I am trying to figure that one out. If you have a great twitter knowledge or have suggestions of other ways to let people know about our site, PLEASE let me know.

I think the buzz is working!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:15:00 +0000

Wow, I have been twittering and blogging. (Just think, a decade ago people would have said...Huh?)
I have had a few new schools sign into freenursetutor.com. Now I just have to get everyone comfortable with the activities.
Hey, here is a nice summary of what you can do.....
http://freenursetutor.com/webpages/nnt/fntinstructor.pdf
I think you will be surprised at the variety of things that you can develop in a very short time.

Try it then let me know what you think.....Let others know also!
See you later!

Sunday afternoon and trying to figure out how to get the word out.

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:28:00 +0000

Well, I just found a site called hubpages.com and created several pages....trying to get the word out about our site. Everytime I do something new, I get this little adrenaline rush...you know, sort of like that time on the floor when a laboring mother is pushing or a patient's glucose drops to 40...Can you say "Cool, Clammy and Confused!"
Anyway, I am getting ready to send an email to our friend and colleagues on freenursetutor and newnursetutor. I hope that they will feel some of the excitement that I feel, and help promote the movement that I am attempting to start. And if you are reading this in response to my email....Welcome and Thanks for respoonding!

Another day at the coffee shop-My brainstorm haven!!!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:26:00 +0000

Back again, in my favorite seat, in my favorite cafe in Houston-The Black Walnut. Free internet access and refills on Iced Tea...What more could a person need when they are brainstorming away!!! Many hours have been spent here and today is no different. The thought for the day is collaboration and spreading the "good news" about freenursetutor's new path. I am trying hard to figure out how you get people to first know who and what you are trying to accomplish. Then secondly, how to spread the word. I have a fairly large mailing list at this time of people we communicate with through short newsletters, but I know that there are multitudes of users that I need to reach. I will be writing to many organizations to introduce Freenursetutor.com to them but I sure could use some ideas. So fellow nursing educator/collaborators, join in with me and if you have any suggestions, please let me know. I am very open to ideas.

That being said I am open for ideas of any kind that relate to the continuing development of this site. Just post a comment or drop me an email. As the days go by I will keep everyone informed of my brainstorms, thoughts, plans and developments. So hang in there with me and let's see if we can create something great...The largest and most useful resource for creating and finding Nurse Education Resources...Now that would be great! But again, I am getting ahead of myself, remember patience is not one of my virtues....but I sure have a lot of enthusiasm for this!

The slow facts of change

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Today does not bring anything exciting to blog about. Discussing changes in how instructors can sign on is not something that most instructors want to read about. In fact it is not something I want to read about! But with change comes the need to pave the road. The good news is that you can move on to the site now and utilize the activities and sign on with our "old" method. I hope that I can give you a more exciting event soon!

Patience is a virtue!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:52:00 +0000

Patience is a virtue...that's a quote that I need to post on my wall! I have so many things that I want to get started with, but I am being held up by waiting for the coders to finish their job.

We are trying to make the site easy to navigate. It will work now, but the navigation is a little more involved. If you would like to begin using the site to create nursing education activities, feel free to do so. Click here to access the page. If you have any problems just send me an email and we can assist you by email or by phone.

Welcome to our new beginnings!

noreply@blogger.com (DianeYeager RN) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:39:00 +0000

Like I said before, I am sitting in my livingroom, trying to think of all there is to do. I have made some pretty big decisions this weekend, related to a website that I created about 5 years ago. The website is freenursetutor.com.

When I first developed this website, it was a mutation of a website that I had used for my students. After several years of using activities in my classroom presentation, labs and at home assignments, my students seemed to really enjoy and appreciate this site. Many of my lower performing students found that when I created activities, such as the BlankIt activity, they were able to review complex concepts at their own pace. I was very excited!

Freenursetutor.com has been in existence for some time now. During that time I developed new website that would allow instructors to create their own activities for a fee.

Assessment Activity
Millionaire Activity
Flash and Match Activity
GroupIT Activity
Charting Activity

I attended several conferences including Health Occupations Students of America, where I did a workshop entitled "The Friendly Side of Technology". I spoke with so many instructors and directors from nursing schools and other health career programs. The site that I had created made quite an impact on these individuals, but sometimes the red tape of instituting new ideas in a "system" can really be bogged down. Instructors were excited, but faced the issues of funding and approval for that funding.

I am not a very patient person! When I want to see something happen, I want it to happen soon. Even for others. I like to see progress and success!

The idea of not being able to work with the instructors because of a small yearly fee just really bothered me. So from this frustration came the new idea of taking this to the instructors for free and step out in faith that if this idea was good enough, we could find sponsors.

So as the days go by, I will move forward and hope to see many of you alongside of me. What a fun and exciting adventure this can be!