Educational Innovations
Use of Visual Narrative Illustrations to Teach Pathophysiology Concepts to Nursing Students
Abstract
Background:
The care of patients with acute and chronic illnesses requires nurses to fully understand the underlying pathophysiology associated with disease processes. Although mastering a pathophysiology course is a strong predictor of student success in nursing programs, it is a course with which students and new nurses most often struggle.
Method:
The authors describe a teaching innovation—visual narrative illustration (VNI)—and demonstrate how VNIs are used to teach complex pathophysiology concepts to nursing students.
Results:
The consistent positive feedback regarding the VNIs that have already been implemented in the pathophysiology course prompted the authors to systematically and formally study the impact of this innovative approach on student learning and knowledge retention.
Conclusion:
Use of VNI is an innovative teaching strategy that has the potential to augment other course materials and bridge some of the knowledge gaps that challenge nursing students from fully understanding pathophysiologic concepts. [J Nurs Educ. 2016;55(2):109–112.]
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