The importance of "deep learning," where students understand and extract meaning rather than memorize information, is recognized as a key component of critical thinking.1 Likewise, it is important for nurse educators to help students learn how to apply nursing knowledge. Although many programs use high-level questions for testing, this is often done without helping students change their study habits or learning processes.1 The Study Umbrella tool was originally designed to help nursing students move their studying to an application level to promote improved performance on high level National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX)-type questions.2 This straightforward tool encourages students to consider what a nurse must do, monitor, or teach within a care scenario. Applying the same structure to health care problems, medications, diagnostic tests, or symptoms, students are able to engage with a familiar pattern and bring real world application to didactic content. In addition, students are readily able to visualize and analyze situations from a nursing perspective, supporting a deeper learning process. Faculty members can use this same approach to guide students through care plan construction, postconference discussions, and the review of NCLEX-type questions. Examples of these applications are available as Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/NE/A272. Students' difficulty in answering higher-level questions can be seen in program attrition and course failure rates.3,4 Therefore, use of the tool has potential to impact student success in numerous areas.Submitted by: Marcella Williams, MS, RN, AOCN(R), CMSRN, Adjunct Instructor, Lansing Community College, Lansing, MI, [email protected].

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