The value of a redesigned clinical course during COVID-19 pandemic: an explorative convergent mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 had a significant consequence for nursing students worldwide including limited access to learning situations in clinical rotation. Therefore, this study aims to explore how an innovative redesign of a clinical course in a time of pandemic supported nursing students in learning the fundamentals of care in their first year. The redesign involved the transformation of a traditional hands-on clinical course into a technology-enhanced learning environment. DESIGN: This was an explorative convergent mixed-methods study using both quantitative and qualitative methods. METHODS: Twenty-four first-year nursing students responded to an online questionnaire with open-ended questions. Two nursing students and one faculty member participated in individual online interviews, and three faculty members participated in an online focus group interview. All the data were collected in June 2020. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data using content analysis. The GRAMMS guideline was applied. RESULTS: The students achieved the learning outcomes regarding fundamental care, basic physical assessment skills, and clinical reasoning with the help of academic assignments, multimedia learning resources, and virtual patients. Further, six central aspects of the facilitator role in the virtual simulation were identified. The aspect that was considered most valuable involved uncovering the "red thread" between different areas of knowledge in the first year of nursing education; this supported the students to better understand how to think and talk like a nurse. CONCLUSION: This study offers insight into how a technology-enhanced clinical course can foster the learning of fundamental nursing care, basic physical assessment skills, and clinical reasoning skills; enhancing students' preparedness for clinical hours. Virtual patients' scenarios contributed to integrating different types of knowledge and skills that are important when providing nursing care for patients in clinical practice. This study also highlighted a gap in pedagogical competence among faculty members with regards to facilitating learning in a technology-enhanced learning environment. Study findings suggest promising pedagogical strategies that should be further developed post-pandemic, in response to the call for a renewal of nursing education using more technologically supported learning designs.

Gender and ethnicity's influence on first-year nursing students' educational motivation and career expectations: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: Given the apparent link between gender and ethnicity, and the diversity and career opportunities in nursing, this study examined gender and ethnicity's influence on first-year nursing students' educational motivation and career expectations. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS: Through bootstrapped linear regressions, we analysed data on 504 Norwegian first-year nursing students' self-reported educational motivation and career expectations, from the StudData survey at the Centre for the Study of Professions (SPS) at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). RESULTS: The sample consisted of 67 (13%) male and 437 (87%) female nursing students. Female students were more motivated compared to male students by professional interest and to pursue a specialization, less likely to assume leadership positions in the future, and more likely to prioritize family and pursue positions in the traditional nursing field. In total, 425 (84%) respondents stated a Norwegian background. Respondents who stated that both of their parents were born in a country other than Norway made up the 79 (16%) students of immigrant background. Those with immigrant backgrounds were more motivated than other students by income, status and flexible working hours and less likely to pursue a specialization or future employment in the nursing field.

One Digital Health: A Unified Framework for Future Health Ecosystems.

One Digital Health is a proposed unified structure. The conceptual framework of the One Digital Health Steering Wheel is built around two keys (ie, One Health and digital health), three perspectives (ie, individual health and well-being, population and society, and ecosystem), and five dimensions (ie, citizens' engagement, education, environment, human and veterinary health care, and Healthcare Industry 4.0). One Digital Health aims to digitally transform future health ecosystems, by implementing a systemic health and life sciences approach that takes into account broad digital technology perspectives on human health, animal health, and the management of the surrounding environment. This approach allows for the examination of how future generations of health informaticians can address the intrinsic complexity of novel health and care scenarios in digitally transformed health ecosystems. In the emerging hybrid landscape, citizens and their health data have been called to play a central role in the management of individual-level and population-level perspective data. The main challenges of One Digital Health include facilitating and improving interactions between One Health and digital health communities, to allow for efficient interactions and the delivery of near-real-time, data-driven contributions in systems medicine and systems ecology. However, digital health literacy; the capacity to understand and engage in health prevention activities; self-management; and collaboration in the prevention, control, and alleviation of potential problems are necessary in systemic, ecosystem-driven public health and data science research. Therefore, people in a healthy One Digital Health ecosystem must use an active and forceful approach to prevent and manage health crises and disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.