ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the educational system in the United States, especially nursing. Nurse educators are essential to educating the next generation of nurses, but they are in short supply while the need for nurses is growing. There is limited research on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on nurse educators' wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to explore the personal and professional challenges of being an academic nurse educator during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of this transition on their lives and academic nursing in the future. The research questions were (1) How do nurse educators describe the pedagogical challenges encountered when changing the format of nursing education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How do nurse educators describe the effects of the pedagogical challenges (when changing the format of nursing education) encountered and institutional constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic on their personal wellbeing? (3) How do nurse educators believe their personal and professional challenges, through experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, may impact academic nursing education going forward? The theoretical lens used to guide the study was Hardy and Conway's Role Theory and Schoening's Nurse Educator Transition (NET) model.The study design was a qualitative multiple-case, descriptive study employing a cross-case analysis of five nurse educator's individual interviews and documents employed at three baccalaureate nursing programs. Each nurse educator's case was individually presented and analyzed, then cross-analyzed. From the cross-analysis eight themes and five sub-themes where developed. The eight themes identified were (1) the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in pedagogical changes by the nurse educator to meet the course and student learning objectives;(2) nurse educators experienced tension over ethical issues that resulted in disunity;(3) institutional communication plays an important role in nurse educator satisfaction;(4) nurse educators struggled to balance educator role and home/life responsibilities;(5) nurse educators emotional and physical wellbeing declined due to educator role demands;(6) nurse educators are proud of their own and their student's resiliency;(7) student success became the nurse educator's responsibility and;(8) future academic nursing will change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The clinical teaching is the core component of the nursing curriculum, the alarming pandemic rates brought uncertainty to clinical teaching, weighing the safety of patients, students, and faculty, which demanded essential modification in clinical teaching and resulted in challenges in relation to effective response to clinical teaching requirements. This study aimed to assess the effective clinical teaching from the nurse educators' perspective during the remote teaching that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study is a national Web-based descriptive study. Participants were recruited from five major Nursing Colleges in Oman. Descriptive and inferential as well as multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 127 nurse educators completed the survey with mean age of 43.9 (SD = 6.9) years. The overall effective clinical teaching score was 54.4 (SD = 10.9) which is considered acceptable, although the nurse educators in Oman reported the highest score on the safety dimension of the effective clinical teaching. Furthermore, females, doctoral prepared nurse educators, and those who acted as preceptors reported higher effective clinical teaching levels compared to their counterparts. The regression analysis showed that age, gender, and attending infection control training are significant predictors of effective clinical teaching. CONCLUSION: The paradigm shift in clinical teaching requires adequate measures including identification and appropriate training of clinical instructors and preceptors to meet clinical teaching demands in remote teaching. It is also important to take actions that promote and maintain the safety prioritization in bedside clinical teaching. These measures might positively impact on the nursing education process.
ABSTRACT
Academic demands challenge many nursing students as they embark on their professional journey to become competent nurses or further their education. Challenges with incorporating successful retention strategies were problematic during the worldwide COVID-19 public health emergency. Academic student support services were urgently needed. This article describes the successful development of a funded college campus's academic support service center using virtual nurse educator tutoring services for undergraduate and graduate nursing students. The mission of the center is to assist nursing students to become independent, self-confident, and efficient learners who successfully fulfill all academic nursing program requirements. Evidence-based education was provided to train tutors and refine their technology competencies. Tutoring was provided for graduate students to fulfill the need for similar types of academic support services. Metrics were collected to evaluate the relationship between tutoring and academic success indicators. Initial evaluations of tutoring sessions by tutees suggest that peer tutoring as an adjunctive teaching and learning strategy can positively impact academic performance. Findings included improved student quantitative measures including higher exam scores and GPAs along with qualitative outcomes suggesting increased critical thinking skills, self-direction, and self-confidence. Nurse educator student tutors gained valuable teaching experience that promoted their overall academic role development.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Students, Nursing , Faculty, Nursing , Humans , Peer Group , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
An applied epidemiology course for doctor of nursing practice students was revised to include a module on the impact of climate change on population health. The Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) model of instructional design is a gold standard framework for creating course content and guided the module development. A nurse content expert discussed the environmental impacts of climate change on health using literature, actual clinical scenarios, and the application of epidemiologic data. Topics included safeguarding workers and vulnerable populations within the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Students posted reflections on their understanding of module content in response to structured prompts electronically in the learning management system for review by the faculty. Faculty evaluation of responses identified the need to further develop and integrate environmental epidemiology and climate change content more fully within the doctor of nursing practice curriculum.
ABSTRACT
A long-term partnership among the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE) in Rwanda, Partners in Health (PIH)/Inshuti Mu Buzima, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) supports the development of oncology nurses through a clinical nurse educator role. Two senior Rwandan oncology nurses at BCCOE were hired as nurse educators and were mentored by a PIH/DFCI oncology nurse educator using the accompaniment approach. The formalized mentorship process included long-term accompaniment for all educator projects spanning staff training, quality improvement, research, and clinical practice, as well as development of nurse educator competencies and creation of a repository of resources.
Subject(s)
Mentors , Nurse Clinicians , Faculty, Nursing , Humans , Quality Improvement , RwandaABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is devastating post-acute and long-term care (PA/LTC). As geriatricians practicing in PA/LTC and a regional academic medical center, we created this program for collaboration between academic medical centers and regional PA/LTC facilities. The mission of the Geriatric Engagement and Resource Integration in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Facilities (GERI-PaL) program is to support optimal care of residents in PA/LTC facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 5 main components of our program: (1) Project ECHO; (2) nursing liaisons; (3) infection advisory consultation; (4) telemedicine consultation; and (5) resident social contact remote connections. Implementation of this program has had positive response from our local PA/LTC facilities. A key component of our program is our interprofessional team, which includes physicians and nursing, emergency response, and public health experts. With diverse professional backgrounds, our team members have created a new model for academic medical centers to collaborate with local PA/LTC facilities.