Bloom's Taxonomy of Education and its use in Nursing Education - Research Paper Example

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education and its use in Nursing Education Saad Bin Zafar College High quality education in nursing is targeted so as to improve the capability and competency of nurses leading to better patient outcomes. Theoretical knowledge needs to be applied to clinical practice by nurses to achieve this and reach a correct diagnosis and achieve better management of patient. According to Su and Osisek, to effectively complete this transfer, knowledge of thinking paradigms in relation to specific nursing content is required.

Development of instructional designs may simplify this process which can be further eased by classification of objectives according to knowledge and respective cognitive process. Krau has declared Bloom’s taxonomy as the keystone for achieving this target as it provides a framework for classification of objectives. This has increased the nurses understanding of the patient situation and has lead to a decrease in patient complications. Developed in 1956 and last revised in 2001, Bloom’s taxonomy remains one of the most universally applied models (C. Clark). For decades it has been used primarily for classifying learning outcomes.

Originally it consisted of only cognitive domain, but subsequent revisions in 1972 and 1973 added the psychomotor and affective domains respectively. Cognitive domain is associated with knowledge and the development of intellectual skills (C. Clark). This domain can be divided into simpler and difficult behavioral objective categories. Each category denotes a degree of difficulty and the whole domain is structured like a ladder, each and every step needs to be bested before moving on. C. Clark indicates six categories of this domain.

These are Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating. Affective domain centers on a nurse’s ability to handle different situations. According to D. Clark the domain deals with the targets feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm and attitudes. C. Clark also classifies this domain into five categories. Receiving phenomena, Responding to phenomena, Valuing, Organizing values and Internalizing values. Finally the Psychomotor domain involves physical movement, coordination and use of motor skills (C. Clark). Practice makes these skills better which can be assessed by precision and execution of the technique. D. Clark mentions seven categories ranging from simple to complex behavior.

These are Perception, Readiness to act, Guided response, Mechanism, Complex to over response, Adaptation and Origination. All the skills from any of the above domains can be applied to nursing education. According to Krau when a nurse meets with the patient, exchange of information takes place at every instance which may play a vital role in the patient’s final outcome. Bloom’s taxonomy plays a vital role by constructing learning objectives and facilitating this process. The above statement by Krau underlines its application in managing chronic patients.

Cognitive domain really helps in this regard. In his research article, Duan has given very good examples as to what part cognitive domain plays in the chronic management. Remembering helps nurses to recognize medication names and their adverse effects, clinical indication and contra-indications. The Understanding category may help in managing a patient of chronic heart disease by interpreting lab results, classifying different reasons for heart attack and summarizing its pathophysiology. Analyzing and Evaluating allows the nurse to confirm her diagnosis and to check if the patient’s condition is improving with the above therapy or not.

The final category of Creating really shows the application of Bloom’s taxonomy in the management of chronic patient. It allows a nurse to generate a plan for the patient’s treatment at home and to conduct discussions among family members as to how to improve patient’s care. ReferencesClark, C. C. ( 2007) . Classroom Skills for Nurse Educators. Massachusetts, MA: Jones & Bartlett publishers.Clark, D. (2001) . Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning domains. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.

htmlDuan, Y. (2006). Selecting and applying taxonomies for learning outcomes: A nursing example. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 3(1), 1-12.Krau, S. D. (2011) . Creating educational objectives for patient education using the new Bloom’s Taxonomy. The Nursing Clinics of North America, 46(3), 299-312. Su, W. M. & Osisek, P. J. (2011) . The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy: implications for educating nurses. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 42(7), 321-327.