Public Health Nursing: Leadership, Policy, & Practice, Essay Example

VARKis an abbreviation for Visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic learners.When applying VARK, an individual has to understand the various learning processes that are necessary for nursing practice to succeed(Gardner, Jawler& Barefoot, 2009). Notably, every student has his or her own unique learning style, which is related to the current technology. VARK helps in supporting individuals who have had difficulties in what they do or what they desire to achieve. VARK, as a tool used by instructors, helps in presenting information accurately whereas for students, it is necessary for ensuring preparation of information for better learning as well as retaining. Nurses are responsible for the care of patients as well as educating the patients to make them live to their desired optimal health(Ivanov & Blue, 2007). In addition, the way or the method with which health information is presented to various patients should always be taken into consideration to ensure that the information is delivered through the best way possible in order for them to understand. This is the reason why having the knowledge of individual learning style, as a nurse becomes beneficial when it comes to instructing the patients concerning the matters of their own health. Whenever a nurse understands and knows best how each of the patients learns best, it helps in optimizing the chances of the learning experience, therefore improving the overall health of individuals. After the completion of the VARK questionnaire that stated, “How do I learn best?”the results I got were not surprises(Ivanov & Blue, 2007). The receipt of the multimodal as the only preferred learning style perfectly summed up the study habits over several years like it would happen to any person. As stated, the multimodal learning approach or style consists of four major points, visual, aural, read-write, and kinesthetic approach to the learning methods. The VARK outcome was V=6, A=14, R=14 and K=11. From this results, it was conclusive that learning utilizes the two approaches, aural and read-write, equally at highest level with kinesthetic and finally visual approach.

It is very important to note that the visual preferred learning style is a unique learning style, which rarely uses words in order to provide the appropriate or relevant information to the learners. Most visual learners are very successful in their learning material whenever it is presented to them in terms of pictures, flow charts, slides, posters, graphs, maps, labeled diagrams and colors with several highlighters. From the results, the VARK analysis outcome was excellent. As stated before, all the elements of VARK analysis had equal measures in the process. The read/write preference was very important since it is the major tool that enables students tolearn and extract the right information for practicality purposes.

The read/write skills were relevant to visual component of VARK. Visual component is regarded as the widely used by many learners and its advantage is that it makes the learner participate in learning process himself or herself and reading is seen as one of the best methods that are applicable in many learning contents or subjects. However, in the analysis, the visual component was ranked lowest making it least preferable in this case.The kinesthetic learning method is also appropriate and beneficial since it enables students to participate actively in the learning process. It is an excellent way of learning especially for courses that do not require full time reading and writing like nursing. Having a score of 11 implies its serious applicability and preference compared to the visual component. The auditory and the read-write components were the most preferred. The two components utilize the normal teaching and learning styles. They are efficient for teaching and self-reading.

Besides, the VARK learning method was very efficient considering that it involved all the four components of learning methods(Bastable, 2011). All the components take into considerations the various components of the human body and its functionalities. For instance, it takes into consideration the value or the existence of the eyesight and recommends the visual component. Visual component enables a person to see and interprets what he or she sees. Auditory refers to the sense of hearing and the ability to interpret what one hears. In other words the two components incorporates both hearing and seeing methods of learning.

Despite the fact that VARK is regarded one of the most preferred means or methods of learning, it is generally not applicable and inappropriate in certain circumstances. In the case discussed for instance, there were certain instances where there were differing of the student and faculty. For the student, this learning process is stressful considering the fact that examination was only one sided in a manner that only the students took the exams and the teachers did the settings and markings(Gardner, Jawler& Barefoot, 2009). For the faculties, examinations process poses little stress in their lives due to their experience in teaching. VARK provided was very beneficial since it aids the student in learning his skills and strengths and maximizing on them to facilitate innovation and creativity. In addition, it boosted the learner’s self-esteem. The visual preference was somehow disadvantageous since the use of symbols caused some kinds of confusion. For instance, in nursing diagrams are used but some of these diagrams do not mean the same as the other party. This is similar to other several symbols used in other fields.

References

Bastable, S. B. (2011). Health professional as educator: Principles of teaching and learning. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Gardner, J. N., Jewler, A. J., & Barefoot, B. O. (2009). Your college experience: Strategies for success. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Ivanov, L. L., & Blue, C. L. (2007). Public health nursing: Leadership, policy, & practice. Australia: Delmar Cengage Delmar.