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Development of a Lesson Plan: Caring for the Patient with Schizophrenia

Karen Ballard

School of Nursing, SUNY Delhi

NURS-601-13841-202202: Principles of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Katherine Quartuccio

April 10, 2022

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Development of a Lesson Plan: Caring for the Patient with Schizophrenia

Lesson Plan

Curriculum:         BSN
Course Behavioral Health Nursing
Topic:                  Understanding and Caring for the Patient with Schizophrenia
Setting:               Face-to-Face, Classroom
Lesson description: The purpose of this lesson is to provide students with a general understanding of a patient with a diagnosis of
schizophrenia and to provide students with the tools to care for this patient in an acute setting.
Teaching/Learning Theory: Sociocultural Learning
Time for module delivery (this must be between 1 hour and 1.5 hours): 1.5 hours
Objectives: At the Content Outline Teaching Strategies Time Resources Method of
end of the module, allotted Evaluation
students will be
able to:
Summarize the Overview of Lecture 15-20 mins Course text, Case study
overall disease Schizophrenia: scholarly articles assignment with
process, risk  Disease the creation of a
factors, and at least process nursing care plan
two subtypes of  Subtypes
schizophrenia.  Symptomology
 Risk factors-
consider the
COVID-19
pandemic
Identify at least two Symptomology of 10-15 mins
positive, two Schizophrenia:
negative, two  Positive
cognitive symptoms
symptoms of  Negative
schizophrenia and symptoms
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how their presence  Cognitive

may impede patient symptoms
care.
Discuss successful Interacting with a Lecture, discussion 25-30 mins Course text,
interview Schizophrenic Patient scholarly articles,
techniques that may  Personal online video
be used when inventory
interacting with a  Environmental
patient with inventory
schizophrenia.  Accounting for
non-verbal and
verbal cues
 Ways to
interpret
information
Design a Treatment of a patient 20-25 mins
comprehensive with Schizophrenia
treatment plan that  Behavioral
includes a therapy
behavioral therapy  Medications
component and at o Drug
least two drug classes,
options (one from common
each class) with side effects,
common side patient
effects and relevant education
patient education.  Medication
adherence
programs
 Care
coordination
Source: Bastable, S.B. (2019). Nurse as educator (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett.
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Designing a Lesson Plan

In order to design a lesson plan for this assignment, many different aspects of the intended course had to be contemplated.

Some aspects that were deliberated over include deciding on the course this module would be a section of, identifying the applicable

curriculum and topic which would speak to the depth of learning the students would be expected to achieve, creating applicable

learning objectives, selecting appropriate teaching resources, choosing what learning strategies would be used to teach the content,

declaring a classroom setting, and deciding what evaluation method would be appropriate. Lastly, the timing of the lesson would need

to be formulated so as to keep the overall lesson plan on track. This narrative is meant to provide insight into the development of the

above lesson plan based on the previously mentioned elements.

Course Content

This lesson plan was created for a learning module intended to be a component of a Behavioral Health Nursing course that is a

part of the curriculum for a BSN program. The importance of quality behavioral health care has been highlighted recently due to the

psychological and psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (Hansel et al., 2022). In light of this, the decision to create a

lesson plan for this course topic was made. The decision to focus on the patient with Schizophrenia was made based on previous

experience and student perception. It could be said that caring for and interacting with Schizophrenic patients in an acute setting can

be a source of concern and anxiety for nursing students with no prior experience with this population. Providing students with

fundamental knowledge and skills when caring for these patients may help to assuage some of those apprehensions.

Creation of Learning Objectives

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When developing the learning objectives for this module, it was kept in mind that learning objectives should be distinctly

stated, achievable, and concentrated on the learner (Bastable & Quigley, 2019). Therefore, the learning objectives were developed to

reflect the level of learning the students are expected to have achieved by the end of the module. In order to ensure that effective

learning objectives are constructed, instructors should incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy in conjunction with the SMART approach

(Chatterjee & Corral, 2017). To achieve this, objectives were crafted with the appropriate action verb as per Bloom’s Taxonomy while

also being specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound (Chatterjee & Corral, 2017). Each learning objective can be

connected to information provided and discussed in specific content headings. Additionally, each objective would be measured by the

appraisal of the student’s evaluation assignment. This course is meant to not only provide key information on this population, but also

to begin to develop fundamental critical thinking skills. Once the learning objectives were developed, the next steps would be to

identify applicable course resources and to determine the teaching strategy.

Course Material Selection

The choice of course materials should be guided by the reflection on how the materials will augment the learning objectives,

reinforce the learning needs of the students, and adhere to the course design while embodying the teaching philosophy of the faculty

teaching the course (Scheckel, 2020). Since this module is meant to be a part of a Behavioral Health Nursing course, that course text

would also be used to supplement this learning module. The use of scholarly resources, such as published articles and journals, would

be used to bolster the text as well as to provide additional views on the topic. In addition, online video footage would be used during
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the latter part of the module. The use of online video footage would provide students with a visual demonstration of various patient

presentations and applicable interview skills.

Teaching Strategies

When selecting teaching methods, the intended learning objectives, assessment of the learner, resource availability and the

educator’s comfortability with the various strategies should be taken into consideration (Fitzgerald & Keyes, 2019). Bristol et al.

(2019) informs us that based on learning outcomes and learner needs, the use of multiple teaching methods should be utilized.

Equipped with this information, the teaching strategies of lecture and group discussion were chosen. While it is understood that

lecturing is considered a passive form of learning, this teaching strategy is still considered an effective approach when transmitting

information (Bristol et al., 2019). The course topics would be communicated by lecture with the last two topics being supplemented

with an active form of learning through group discussion. The addition of active learning helps to foster student engagement while

supporting higher-order critical thinking skills (Bristol et al., 2019). Group discussion allows for an active exchange of information

and different points of views amongst students and this exchange can also involve the educator (Fitzgerald & Keyes, 2019). Varying

the teaching method is done with the intention to reach all the learners in the course. Foreseeable barriers may be mostly linked to

group discussion and can be related to class/group size and little oversight by the instructor to ensure that all parties of the group are

participating at the same level.

Classroom Setting
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With the selection of the lecture as a teaching strategy, the subsequent choice to select a face-to-face classroom environment

seemed logical. While this was the setting chosen for this course, the set-up developed could be transitioned to an e-learning

synchronous or asynchronous environment. For a successful transition from the in-person classroom to an e-learning one, instructors

would have to employ techniques to establish and maintain their presence within the virtual class environment, structure activities to

help foster a community of learning, and integrate tasks to promote the sharing of relevant and substantive knowledge to allow for

active learning and learner engagement (Esani, 2010).

Method of Evaluation

The evaluation process is an important aspect of learning because it provides students with an assessment of how well the

content was mastered while providing the educator with an assessment of how well the content was delivered (Elahi et al., 2016). A

common evaluation method is the summative evaluation (Scheckel, 2020). The use of summative evaluation can be most beneficial

when assessing learning outcomes at the conclusion of a course (Halstead, 2020). For this module, the process used to assess how

closely students met their learning objectives include a written assignment with the creation of a nursing care plan based on a provided

case study. Questions that will guide the discussion will be centered on the first three learning objectives. The creation of a nursing

care plan would be used to measure the fourth learning objective. The use of the written assignment followed by the creation of a

nursing care plan can help students further develop their critical thinking while demonstrating understanding of the use of the nursing

process when caring for this patient population.

Course Delivery Timeline

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As previously stated, one of the intentions for this course is to facilitate the development of critical thinking. Scheckel (2020)

shares that a structured learning environment is essential when cultivating students’ cognitive skills and tendencies for analysis. The

allotment of time for the intended experience has been identified as a component of the structured learning experience (Scheckel,

2020). The total time for this module delivery is one and a half hours. The total time was broken up into intervals for each content

topic. Using time intervals would provide the instructor with an established timeframe that allows for content delivery and applicable

questions. Additionally, if many questions arise or if the discussion portion of the lesson begins to encroach on the later end of the

allocated time, the instructor is aware of the time constraints and is prepared to redirect the lecture and proceed to the subsequent

topic. Less time was assigned to the first two topics of the lesson plan as these topics will be taught via lecture and may not elicit

many questions from the class. However, the last two topics will be taught via mixed strategies of both lecture and discussion

therefore more time was given to account for the teacher-learner interactions, the peer-peer interactions, and course debrief.
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References

Bastable, S.B., & Quigley, L. B. (2019). Behavioral objectives and teaching plans. In S.B. Bastable (Ed.). Nurse as educator (5th ed.

pp. 407-442). Jones and Bartlett.

Bristol, T., Hagler, D., McMillian-Bohler, J., Wermers, R., Hatch, D., & Oermann, M. H. (2019). Nurse educators' use of lecture and

active learning. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 14(2), 94–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2018.12.003 

Chatterjee, D., & Corral, J. (2017). How to write well-defined learning objectives. Journal of Education in Perioperative

Medicine, 19(4), E610. https://doi.org/10.46374/volxix-issue4-chatterjee

Elahi, N., Adineh, M., & Rasooli, Z. (2016). How to make clinical and classroom evaluation in nursing effective: Content

analysis. African Educational Research Journal, 4(2), 69–75. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1216171.pdf

Esani, M. (2010). Moving from face-to-face to online teaching. American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, 23(3), 187–190.

https://doi.org/10.29074/ascls.23.3.187 

Fitzgerald, K., & Keyes, K. (2019). Teaching methods and settings. In S.B. Bastable (Ed.). Nurse as educator (5th ed. pp. 443-488).

Jones and Bartlett.

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Halstead, J.A. (2020) Introduction to the evaluation process. In D.M. Billings & J.A. Halstead (Eds.). Teaching in nursing: A guide

for faculty (6th ed. pp. 437-449). Elsevier.

Hansel, T. C., Saltzman, L. Y., Melton, P. A., Clark, T. L., & Bordnick, P. S. (2022). Covid-19 behavioral health and quality of

life. Scientific Reports, 12, 961. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05042-z

Scheckel, M. (2020). Designing courses and learning experiences. In D.M. Billings & J.A. Halstead (Eds.). Teaching in nursing: A

guide for faculty (6th ed. pp. 181-201). Elsevier.