Technology in nursing education: YouTube as a teaching strategy.

YouTube is a learning resource that can assist nurse educators in creating a new learning paradigm in response to limited clinical experiences and the learning needs of millennial students. IN 2009, THE National League for Nursing (NLN) conducted a survey to examine the challenges nurse educators faced when choosing and scheduling experiences for students' clinical learning (Ironside & McNelis, 2010). The results indicated the most frequently identified challenge faced by nurse educators was the lack of clinical sites to provide appropriate learning experiences to meet course objectives. Finding clinical sites for specialty nursing courses, such as pediatrics, can be the most difficult of all clinical placements (Kline & Hodges, 2006). This clinical site shortage provides nurse educators the opportunity to redesign classroom and clinical learning activities to meet the learning objectives for acute pediatric disorders. Technology use in nursing education is widely encouraged (Herman, 2011). Nursing education has adapted to include the use of simulation, gaming, virtual reality, and interactive case studies that can teach acute care in a safe learning environment. Additionally, the traditional student of nursing is one that adapts easily to learning activities utilizing technology (Pardue & Morgan, 2008). The “millennial” generation has never known a time when educational and social experiences did not include the use of technology. Therefore, the challenge for educators utilizing technology is to ensure that the technology being considered best supports the overall learning goals and objectives.