Karen Lilyquist, Faculty Member of the Year for 2011-2012 shares her insights
Kaplan Nursing has always prided itself on hiring the best, most engaging and caring instructors since it first began preparing nursing students for the NCLEX® over thirty years ago. One of the best examples is Karen Lilyquist, PhD, RN, RD-LD, private home healthcare agency owner and Kaplan’s Faculty Member of the Year for 2011-2012. Karen has taught for Kaplan Nursing since 1993 as an NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN faculty member, Faculty Trainer and Teaching Assistant, instructing nearly 2,700 students in a single year.
If you ask Karen what makes her a successful member of the Kaplan team, she’ll tell you “It’s my second job, but it comes second nature to me and I love it.” While passion is an integral component to making the entire Kaplan team successful, Karen also credits Kaplan’s critical thinking and clinical judgment framework, extensive online resource course components and Faculty Training and Development Programs as ingredients that make the experience all the more rewarding.
According to Barbara Irwin, MSN, RN, Executive Director of Kaplan Nursing, “The National Council of State Boards of Nursing has routinely said that NCLEX questions test a single construct and that is critical thinking.” Using this concept as the underlying theme in her teaching, Karen truly believes that “Kaplan’s critical thinking framework—The Decision Tree—is what students need to pass the exam. This philosophy guides our program and everything we do. Being able to focus on building critical thinking is what sets Kaplan apart from other reviews. Why would I want to teach only content when students are already coming to class with that information? We don’t want to teach to just one or two students, we want to teach to the entire class, because everyone can benefit from the review of critical thinking.”
Inside the classroom, Karen routinely tells her students that “I’m here role modeling the Decision Tree process for you, but by the end of the class you’ll be role modeling it to me.” Working with students and seeing that moment of realization in their eyes is what gives Karen energy. “Anyone can review content, but applying that content knowledge is our emphasis. By the time class is over, the students are teaching it back to me,” she adds. “It’s not just doing questions, it’s about truly understanding the questions,” she emphasizes, which is why our students review questions in class and online.
Our conscious effort to create specific reviews for both RN and PN students is another facet that sets Kaplan apart. While the science behind the nursing process is the same across the board for all nurses, Kaplan knows there are different responsibilities along the scope of practice and delegation for RN and PN nurses that require their reviews to be distinct and separate. This is why Kaplan, unlike some other review companies, holds separate reviews for RN and PN students instead of combining the two together. It is important that students clearly understand the lines of delineation so they are able to critically think through high-level questions on the NCLEX without being tripped up by answer choices that are outside their specific classification. Furthermore, Kaplan instructors are healthcare providers in the state in which they are instructing to allow for insights into how each state’s practices differ.
Lastly, Kaplan instructors are committed to the students. “It’s not just showing up for class,” Karen says. “It’s my teammates and I chatting with students before and after class, during breaks, via email, and even after class is over! No student should ever feel like she’s going through her preparation on her own, and at Kaplan, no student does. We give them everything they need to pass NCLEX.”
NCLEX-RN® and NCLEX-PN® are registered trademarks of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc.
