MSN Graduate Named Rising Star of Research

As a student in Chamberlain’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Educator specialty track, Myria Taylor, MSN, RN, tackled the question that preoccupies educators everywhere: how do we make sure that students understand what we are trying to teach?

Her solution earned her the accolades of students and faculty at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKYCTC) – Glasgow Campus, where she now works as a nursing instructor.

The daughter of a nurse, Taylor began her own career in nursing while she was still a teenager. “I didn’t have a Plan B,” she said. “If nursing didn’t work out, I don’t know what I’d do.”

She began volunteering at the facility where her mom worked and became certified as a CNA at age 16. She went on to earn an associate degree in nursing in 1997 and graduate from Chamberlain’s RN-BSN degree completion option in 2011.

Taylor worked in nursing care and administration, eventually becoming director of nursing at a long-term care facility.

It was in that executive role that Taylor realized that her true calling was nursing education. She enrolled in Chamberlain’s MSN program and arranged to complete her practicum at SKYCTC.

There, the nursing department had already purchased an audience response system but was not using it. Myria researched the system – commonly known as “clickers” – for her practicum and helped implement it and solicit feedback for her capstone project.

Commonly used on TV game shows, clickers are remote-control devices that allow a presenter to pose a question and audience members to select a response. In the nursing classroom, instructors can use the system to ask questions about the material they have just presented and collect answers from students in real time.

“It’s kind of changed the whole teaching strategy,” Myria explained. “A lot of students are too embarrassed to ask questions because they don’t want to look silly in front of their classmates. You wouldn’t know if they’re understanding the material until they take the test. But with the clickers, you know right away if they got it or if you need to over it again.”

The surveys she did have shown the clicker system to be a resounding success.

“The instructors like it because they know the students are learning. The students like it because it gives them something to do, and lets them interact and participate.”

Myria will be presenting her data in November at the Sigma Theta Tau International convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she has been named a ‘Rising Star of Research.’

“I’m looking forward to the conference,” she said. “I’ve become passionate about clickers. It will be good to interact with all the other people and share.”

By Danielle Logacho