How to Implement Active Note Taking for Nursing Students
“College is a place where a professor’s lecture notes go straight to the students’ lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either.”
When the Higher Education Research Institute surveyed faculty about their teaching methods, over 50% of college educators reported they lectured "extensively." When students were asked about the teaching strategies instructors used, the results were even higher (anywhere from 60-70% of class time spent in lectures) 😯 So, is there a way to include active learning in a nursing education lecture?
First, this is a no-judgment zone 🎯
Before we start this discussion, I want to be clear: I do not want you to feel guilty if your lesson plans lean heavily on lectures. A lecture can be an effective teaching tool. But some slight modifications can improve the learning experience and student engagement.
Turning passive lecture into active learning in nursing education
I will whole-heartedly agree that that are times when a lecture is needed. But there are some best practices that we can put into place to make it effective.
Use short lecture segments
The optimal time for a lecture segment in class is about 10-20 minutes. An activity should immediately follow. Examples of activities include discussion, worksheets, group work, or any active learning technique (like those found in the Idea Bank). The key is to break it up into small sections. This lecture/activity style applies to online learning as well. Divide the content into sections and make each video only 10-20 minutes long.
Use lectures to promote active note-taking 📝
Research supports that note-taking can help students in a variety of ways:
It can help with focus and attention ✅
It can ease the cognitive load 🧠
It can help with memory and recall 🤔
So if a lecture is a part of your lesson plan, consider adding active note-taking. This activity takes minimal time, especially if you already give presentation handouts.
How to Implement Active Note-Taking
Start with a deep decluttering
Before adding this activity to your lecture, consider a complete, deep decluttering on your presentation. See your content through the lens of a minimalist. Look for the ✨ MOST IMPORTANT ✨points and keep them. Delete the rest. Yes, delete. Either distill it down or highlight and press delete. 🔙
So, are you asking, "but what if a student has a patient with biliary atresia?" Here are my thoughts on this: As an entry-level nurse, the student must understand the pathophysiology of the liver and gallbladder. In addition, they need to know common gallbladder conditions. But when they come across biliary atresia in practice, they can apply this knowledge to this patient and use their resources (such as textbooks and online research tools) to fill the gaps.
I am on a mission to be the Marie Kondo of nursing education. 🧹🧽 And my questions to mirror "does it bring you joy?" will be "does a nurse need to know this to enter practice?" This process can feel brutal at first, but it will get easier.
Just try it on a few of your slides. Please eliminate anything you haven't seen in your practice. For example, when I took on the hematology section of my curriculum, I found the presentation filled with rare anemias and blood cancers I had never heard of before, and I was an oncology nurse! There was a considerable section on the history of hemophilia in the Russian royal family. 🤷🏽♀️These rare conditions are appropriate for nurses seeking certification. But a nurse preparing to enter practice needs to understand hemoglobin, how anemia looks in a patient, and the most common nursing interventions related to anemia in the short and long term.
It needed to be distilled down and focus on the essential elements. I eliminated so much content while being mindful of maintaining the learning objectives. Focusing on simplicity made my content feel cleaner, lighter, and easier to digest. 🪶 Remember, this is entry to practice, not preparing for a specialty.
Allow for white space
It can feel like we always try to fill a space. Whether it is a short block of time in our calendar or an empty space on our bookshelf, it seems like we are quick to fill anything that looks "empty." Brene Brown wrote an excellent post on the importance of allowing for space in our lives.
Space is essential for growth and reflection. 🌳And allowing for white space in a presentation is critical in promoting active learning in nursing education.
So, after a complete, deep decluttering of your presentation 🧹🧽, begin to build in the space.
Look for the key points. 🗝️
Highlight and review your key points against your learning objectives and exam questions. 📝
Create the space. 🤍
Creating space can be a challenge. It feels awkward at first, and you may feel that need to "fill" in the holes. But white space is essential in design. It is a tool to balance and organize. ⚖️ People get frustrated when bombarded by information. Designers of all types know this and offer up calming white space to let us breathe. We can do the same for students in our course design and presentations.
Three ways to include blank spaces
Let's add text space now that we have some visual white space. Active note-taking involves intentional blank space in the text of a slide for students to - you guessed it - take notes! There are a few ways educators can do this:
1) Fill-in-Blank - Once the text on a slide is minimal, consider removing the essential vocabulary and just leaving a blank space. When you lecture on the content, emphasize this vocabulary or write the words in the space with the students.
2) Charts - A chart space is excellent for comparing and contrasting data. If you have a chart in your slide deck, consider leaving it empty and have students complete it as you discuss the topic. Then, check out the video to see how you can use it to compare and contrast assessment data.
3) Diagrams - I am not an artist and am not great at drawing. But don't let that stop you from drawing out a concept for students. Put a heading on your slide and invite students to draw with you. This technique works well for patho discussions such as the heart's electrical pathway, a review of the anatomy of a roux-en-y surgery or Whipple procedure, or demonstrating how osmosis works.
Here is a short video on the three ways that you can use active note-taking in your presentations:
Putting it all Together
Finally, I feel like there is some magic in writing down information. 🪄 In a digital age, where we consume so much content virtually, I genuinely believe there is a beautiful connection between your hand and your brain when you write notes. That may be a bit woo-woo, but I have experienced it, and I bet you have too! So give it a try with your students and see if you notice a difference. Don't be afraid of an experiment! 🧪
Start Building an Active Note-Taking Lecture
Active note-taking can be an excellent introduction to active learning in nursing education. To implement this activity, you can start by completely decluttering your slide deck, presentation, and the content you cover in class. Next, add white space. You can do this through fill-in-the-blank sections, charts, or diagrams. It will make your lecture cleaner, easier to consume, and more engaging to students.
Looking for more Active Learning Tools?
For ready-to-go active learning activities, you can use right away in your classroom or clinical, check BreakoutRN’s Escape Decks and Escape Kits.