Through problem-based learning, nursing students work in groups to determine the best response to a realistic scenario. Through this teaching strategy, nursing students must develop their critical thinking abilities and learn to collaborate within small groups; both skills prove highly useful upon graduation and during active nursing. Depending on your students' ability levels, you might provide more or less detail at the outset of the problem-based lesson. Giving a very basic scenario will help students to make fast-paced decisions when they have limited information; providing more details will test the students' recollection of various health factors and the best corresponding treatments. Problem-based learning is one of many strategies recommended for contemporary nursing instruction in Jan Woodhouse's book, "Strategies for Healthcare Education: How to Teach in the 21st Century."
Self-directed learning refers to any teaching strategy which places the student in an active role. As such, it can help nursing students to develop a sense of responsibility for their own education and development, a useful skill for them to develop as caregivers and decision-makers. To incorporate a more self-directed approach into your teaching, have students set their own, personal learning goals. You may even have students assess their own progress, either independently or in consultations with their instructors or teacher assistants. Depending on your students, you may even factor self-assessment into the students' overall grading and evaluations.
Students who learn well visually may benefit from concept mapping, a strategy that uses complex visual diagrams to represent various interrelated ideas and concepts. If you use concept mapping, provide your students with example methods of mapping ideas, using various patterns and lines to connect concepts. Let them select the most suitable mapping method, potentially one they design themselves.
Like problem-based learning, case studies provide students with realistic scenarios and require critical thinking skills. However, a case study provides a fuller description of a clinical situation, usually based on a real-life incident. For example, a case study might present a great deal of information about a specific patient, which nursing students must analyze in order to recommend a certain course of treatment.