NURS 393 was my one and only Honors-enhanced course. This means that it was not originally offered as an Honors credit, but I went to extra lengths to conduct my own research within the class to earn Honors credit. NURS 393 is a 5-credit course titled Nursing Care of Patients with Complex Health Problems, and it had never been enhanced prior to this time in Spring 2022. Additionally, I chose to enhance this class with a fellow peer and good friend of mine who is also an EMT. With our combined critical care experience, we felt well prepared to enhance this course and work on a research project together. After meeting with our professors, we chose the complex heath problem of COVID-19 and decided that the culmination of our work would be presented lecture-style with a Powerpoint, brochure handout, and interactive musical assignment.
While this assignment was technically more work than what would have been assigned to me and my peer, it was not harder work nor was it “dreaded” work. When my partner and I met outside of class time, we were both excited about the freedom to research exactly what we wanted as well as decide how we wanted to present our work. We did not have to worry about meeting rubric expectations or being forced to write an APA paper. We were our own teachers and this independence increased our enjoyment of the enhanced assignment. Additionally, our professors and classmates told us how excited they were to learn from us, which gave us meaning and purpose to perform well.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1imqEUELjAssbXR9AEc9hXvspXJf-DyOVBvE_ViNfP5U/edit?usp=sharing