Teaching Testable CNA Skills with Nurse JAR
On October 27, 2022, CNA Simulations hosted a webinar featuring guest speaker Nurse Julie Reynolds LVN, C-NM, QCP, aka Nurse JAR, on YouTube, who gave a talk about clinical nursing assistant instruction and learning how to train CNA students on testable CNA skills.
Throughout the 75-minute session, Nurse JAR, discussed how to best help CNA students build critical skills they will need in testing and the field. The webinar was attended by CNA Instructors and administrators from states across the nation and the District of Columbia.
Introduction (0:00-12:00)
In this webinar section, Dr. Charlene Brown introduced our guest speaker, Julie Ann Reynolds LVN, C-NM, QCP, AKA Nurse JAR. Nurse Reynolds then introduced herself and her accomplishments, some of which include military veteran, nurse for 19 years, author, and YouTube micro-influencer. She provided a brief demo and explained how the CNA simulation scenarios work. At this point, Nurse JAR invited webinar attendees to introduce themselves to one another and asked them to share some of their teaching challenges in the chat. After this, she introduced the topics for her presentation, including, but not limited to, her 7 C’s Framework, Training Consistency, Reality vs. Testing, and more.
7 C’s Framework (12:00-38:15)
In this section, Nurse JAR went through her 7 C’s framework for instruction and evaluating instruction. In her discussion of this, Nurse JAR stressed the idea of the inimitable instructor, the idea that an instructor's students’ outcomes are the reflection of the training and leadership of the instructor. The 7 C’s, as described by Nurse JAR, are:
Control. You need to control your class; if students control the flow of the class, then things could go awry.
Consistency. Be consistent in how you teach.
Creativity. You can't just read from a book; you need to find creative ways to relay information to students that will keep them engaged in what you are teaching them. A good way to do this is by seeking outside resources.
Charisma. Bond and connect with students in presentations and actions to create positive student engagement. Create a commitment your students have to you and your teachings by connecting with them.
Confidence. if you are competent, you can be more confident, and more confidence on your part will help your students be more confident in training and testing.
Competence. Competence goes along with confidence.
Communication. It plays a huge role in the career of a nursing assistant instructor to communicate with students, families, doctors, other nurses, etc. You need to communicate with students while they’re learning so they don't make mistakes in training and testing.
“If you stand in front of a podium or stand in front of a projector screen just reading off bullet points one after the other, you're going to lose your students. You need to find a creative way to keep them engaged.”
- Nurse JAR
Also Included in this section are three reflection questions for each of the 7 C's that can be used as an assessment for instructors to evaluate how they are performing in each category and what things they may need to improve on.
Training Consistency (38:15-52:00)
Relating to the C of consistency, in this section of the webinar, Nurse JAR spoke about how you and your students need to be consistent in the classroom and how to produce the best results.
5 steps to training testable skills consistently
Identify. Identify your state's authorized administrator and testing requirement, and inform the students of it.
Supplies. Make sure your facility has the supplies for your students to practice. Consider allowing students to check out supplies.
Communicate. Communicate and give positive feedback to your students and constructive criticism.
Identify. Determine which skill steps are most commonly challenging for your students.
Observations & Evaluations. Routinely observe and evaluate your students, and use appropriate documents for evaluation.
In addition to these steps, Nurse JAR also spoke about how to set goals for student success.
“The power behind setting goals is allowing your students space to grow and improve.” -Nurse JAR
Example SMART goal: Students will perform opening procedure within 3 minutes with 90% accuracy
Class Council Set-Up (59:00-65:00)
In this webinar section, Nurse JAR shared videos of the class council setup she uses in her CNA courses. She discussed some of the key aspects of having a class council:
Instructors train ambassadors, then ambassadors train the leaders with the instructors’ oversight. That’s how the instructors know how well they understand the skill. Then the leaders train the peer coaches who train team members.
It helps students struggling with testable skills because it allows you to focus your attention on those students while not neglecting other students.
Empowerment by class ambassadors helps maintain student engagement.
Leaders usually stay in place, but when she chooses a student council it isn't set in stone. This is how she encourages students to stay diligent.
For those teaching adult learners, taking a strategy of just having peer coaches is another strategy that she has used that works.
The Starting Point (65:00-70:00)
In this section of the webinar, Nurse JAR overviewed her step-by-step strategy for helping students build clinical skills:
Tell your students about your state’s authorized test administrator (e.g. Prometrics, Credentia, Headmaster).
Give the skills checklist to students, not the handbook. That’s less intimidating to students.
Teach indirect care behaviors and skills first since they are relevant from beginning to end.
Explain supply items to students, and which ones are needed for each skill.
Then, demonstrate
Nurse JAR recommended that the instructors in the audience use baby steps to slowly introduce skills. Introducing them all at once could overwhelm students.
Reality vs. Testing (70:00-72:30)
In this part of the session, Nurse JAR discussed some of the key differences between testing and reality as they relate to the job of a nursing instructor.
Reality includes uncontrolled environments. For example, the resident’s conditions, abilities, limitations, and degree of cooperation are all variable.
Testing involves controlled environments and predetermined actions where the resident’s abilities and limitations are known and explained.
“Training your students to perform additional unnecessary steps and collecting unnecessary supply items result in poor time management and makes the skill more complex”
- Nurse JAR
Tool Developing & Networking (72:30-77:30)
In this section of the webinar, Nurse JAR gave the audience some advice on how to develop their toolkits as CNA Instructors, but also how to network to your advantage.
Listen to your students.
Determine how your students learn best and what motivates them.
Inherit ideas from others and make them your own.
Cultivate your ideas and tools into robust CNA games. This can help with maximizing student engagement and information retention.
Instructors should network with other instructors, test evaluators, and with each other through social media as a way to leverage advantages.
Q & A (52:00-59:00)
In the Question and Answer (Q & A) section of the webinar, participants asked about the different testing formats, Nurse JAR’s videos, Nurse JAR’s original CNAQuest game, how to encourage students to perform in the classroom, and more.
Schedule a Demo
To stay up to date on all things CNA Simulations, don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list, which has information about webinars like this one. Or, if you’re a CNA instructor, schedule a demo for a personalized tour of CNA Simulations.
