Tenet 2 Linchpins & Connections
Included In This Lesson
Outline
Overview
- Provide instruction in a way that allows complex material to “click”.
- The ultimate goal is true understanding and retention
- NOT just memorization
Key Points
- We focus on Linchpins
- A linchpin is the one piece of wood or metal stuck in the end of the wheel axle that keeps the whole dang wheel from falling off!!
- What’s the ONE thing that they MUST know – the one thing that…if they didn’t get it, the whole thing would fall apart.
- For example – to understand Heart Failure, you MUST understand that it is pump failure – so blood stops flowing forward and backs up in the system.
- If you don’t understand this – nothing else will make sense.
- Once you’ve identified that linchpin – build your lesson around it, just like spokes on a wagon wheel.
- Provide connections
- If learners don’t make connections and understand things in context, they won’t retain it!
- Our goal is to help the material they have learned make sense in a way that they will be able to recall it later
- Not just recall it – understand it, explain it, and apply it.
- Make connections between the pathophysiology and the symptoms.
- The symptoms and medications.
- The treatment and the pathophysiology.
- The condition and real life.
- All of it.
Assessment
- Now that you’ve gone through the training on this concept, head to THIS LINK to find out how well you can make your own linchpins!
Transcript
Okay! So, let’s talk about Core Tenet #2 of the Core Content Mastery Method. This involves Linchpins and Connections. This brings in our big goal of helping to make the content click and helping to reduce content overwhelm.
First, I want to make sure you understand what we mean when we say “Linchpins”. A linchpin is this one little piece of metal or wood that sticks into the end of an axle and literally keeps the entire wheel from falling off. So…when we look at teaching and learning – the linchpin is that one piece of information that holds the whole concept together. It’s the ONE THING they MUST understand. If they don’t understand it, the whole topic will fall apart.
So, the goal in using linchpins is that learners would gain a true understanding of the concept and really retain the information. SO…before you start to develop a lesson or any content, you need to determine what the linchpin is! What’s the ONE thing that they MUST know in order to keep the whole thing from falling apart. So, let’s think about heart failure. I want you to pause this video and think of the ONE thing that students have to understand about heart failure in order to get the rest of it. Okay – got it? So…the linchpin for heart failure would be that the heart is a pump, therefore heart failure equals pump failure, meaning blood can’t get forward where it’s supposed to go and starts to back up like a clogged pipe. If they can get this concept, the rest of the concepts will fall into place. On the other hand – if they DON’T get this concept – there’s NO way they can understand the pathophysiology, the symptoms and presentation, the meds. None of it will make sense without this key concept. So – identify the linchpin and then build the rest of your lesson around it!
We also want to make connections within the content – Watkins & Mortimore said “Unless learners are building up their understanding of situations – through understanding the variations between them – knowledge learned in one context is unlikely to pass to any other.” In other words – if learners can’t make connections and see relationships between the different concepts, they are not likely to be able to recall any of it later. So we want to help the material make sense in a way that they will be able to retain it and recall it later!
But not just recall – recall alone isn’t enough for competent and confident practice. We also want them to truly understand it, be able to explain it back to us or to a peer, and to be able to apply it in a real clinical environment.
So make those connections! Between the disease process and its pathophysiology, between the patho and symptoms, the meds and the patho, meds and symptoms, and between all of these things and what you’ve actually seen in a real life patient! All of these things can help students see the big picture and truly understand what this disease process or topic means to a patient.
So, let’s recap – First, find the linchpin – the one thing they MUST understand to understand the topic. Build your lesson around that, like spokes on a wagon wheel. Make connections between the different concepts and put the situation in context, especially if it can be applied in multiple contexts. And remember that the whole goal is to make everything click so learners can recall it, understand it, explain it, and apply it!
Be sure to check out the mnemonic attached to this lesson to help you know how to identify the Linchpins and the most important information. And keep progressing through this module to learn about Core Tenet #3 and #4. With that said, go out and be your best self today. Happy nursing!
Tiona RN
Concepts Covered:
- Studying
- Medication Administration
- Adult
- Emergency Care of the Cardiac Patient
- Intraoperative Nursing
- Microbiology
- Cardiac Disorders
- Vascular Disorders
- Nervous System
- Upper GI Disorders
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Brain
- Immunological Disorders
- Fundamentals of Emergency Nursing
- Dosage Calculations
- Understanding Society
- Circulatory System
- Concepts of Pharmacology
- Hematologic Disorders
- Newborn Care
- Adulthood Growth and Development
- Disorders of Pancreas
- Postoperative Nursing
- Pregnancy Risks
- Neurological
- Postpartum Complications
- Noninfectious Respiratory Disorder
- Peripheral Nervous System Disorders
- Learning Pharmacology
- Prenatal Concepts
- Tissues and Glands
- Developmental Considerations
- Factors Influencing Community Health
- Childhood Growth and Development
- Prenatal and Neonatal Growth and Development
- Developmental Theories
- Basic
- Neonatal
- Pediatric
- Gastrointestinal
- Newborn Complications
- Labor Complications
- Fetal Development
- Terminology
- Labor and Delivery
- Postpartum Care
- Communication
- Basics of Mathematics
- Statistics
- Basics of Sociology
- Cardiovascular
- Shock
- Shock
- Disorders of the Posterior Pituitary Gland
- Endocrine
- Disorders of the Thyroid & Parathyroid Glands
- Liver & Gallbladder Disorders
- Lower GI Disorders
- Respiratory
- Delegation
- Perioperative Nursing Roles
- Acute & Chronic Renal Disorders
- Respiratory Emergencies
- Disorders of the Adrenal Gland
- Documentation and Communication
- Preoperative Nursing
- Legal and Ethical Issues
- Oncology Disorders
- Female Reproductive Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Trauma
- Renal Disorders
- Male Reproductive Disorders
- Sexually Transmitted Infections
- Infectious Respiratory Disorder
- Integumentary Disorders
- Emergency Care of the Trauma Patient
- Urinary Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Neurological Emergencies
- Disorders of Thermoregulation
- Neurological Trauma
- Basics of NCLEX
- Integumentary Important Points
- Multisystem
- Test Taking Strategies
- Urinary System
- Emergency Care of the Neurological Patient
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Spinal Cord
- Respiratory System
- Emergency Care of the Respiratory Patient
- Cognitive Disorders
- Anxiety Disorders
- Depressive Disorders
- Trauma-Stress Disorders
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Bipolar Disorders
- Psychotic Disorders
- Concepts of Mental Health
- Eating Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Health & Stress
- Psychological Emergencies
- Somatoform Disorders
- Prioritization
- Community Health Overview
- Gastrointestinal Disorders
- Integumentary Disorders
- Respiratory Disorders
- Neurologic and Cognitive Disorders
- Renal and Urinary Disorders
- Infectious Disease Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Hematologic Disorders
- Cardiovascular Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
- Oncologic Disorders
- Behavior
- Emotions and Motivation
- Growth & Development
- Intelligence and Language
- Psychological Disorders
- State of Consciousness
- Note Taking
- Concepts of Population Health
- Basics of Human Biology