Background: Prior to March 2020, a hybrid state-wide undergraduate RN to BSN nursing program collaborates with a medical librarian at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) to ensure that evidence-based practice learning outcomes are met. Second, third, and fourth-semester students complete carefully scaffolded assignments online in their Learning Management System (LMS) to ensure success in locating, evaluating, and ethically using information. This lightning talk will describe specific instructional methods and how they were adapted to meet the needs of students who were abruptly moved to an entirely online learning environment.
Description: Students who complete the RN to BSN program are provided multiple opportunities to practice locating, evaluating, and ethically using information. Students are first introduced to the UAA/APU Consortium Library's nursing librarian and the topic of information usage rights by participating in discussion board posts within their LMS. Next, students become familiar with terminology related to searching, information access, and management/storage. These strategies culminate in a fourth-semester group assignment where students apply their knowledge to a final presentation on a research topic of their choosing. Pre-pandemic, students completed these librarian-graded assignments online and were supplemented with Guide-on-the-Side tutorials, in-class instruction, and regular in-person office hours. Since the pandemic began, the librarian has seen improved student success with the librarian recording herself searching databases via Zoom, clearer rubrics, spreading assignments out over multiple units, and offering drop-in Zoom office hours.
Conclusion: Assignment metrics have shown that learning outcomes have improved over the last four semesters from March 2020 to the present. Also, connections with students have greatly improved through increasing the ways in which students can connect with the nursing librarian.