ABSTRACT
Introduction: Worldwide, COVID-19 affected nursing students' and faculty's mental and physical health. The final clinical placement for fourth-year nursing students during the third wave of COVID-19 in Toronto, Canada, included direct patient care without vaccination eligibility. Students' experiences during the pandemic and faculty exposure to teaching and supporting them provide unique reflective opportunities. Objective: To examine the lived experiences of nursing students and faculty during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study used a qualitative phenomenological design with thematic analysis. A voluntary response sample of 80 participants shared their narratives of working and teaching during January to May 2021. An optional interview guide offered open-ended questions requiring reflection. The study was conducted in a nursing school in Toronto, Canada during fourth-year baccalaureate students final clinical placement settings. Results: A total of 77 fourth-year baccalaureate nursing students and three faculty members participated. Thematic analysis of nursing student narratives identified four main themes: (i) fear and anxiety of COVID-19 during clinical practice; (ii) impact on students' learning environments; (iii) intrinsic and extrinsic factors that enabled students to persevere; and (iv) how to deal with future pandemics. Thematic analysis of faculty narratives identified three main themes: (i) the importance of preparatory work; (ii) psychological and physical manifestations of supporting students; and (iii) the resilience of students and faculty. Conclusion: Future disease outbreaks and other large-scale health events will require nurse educators to understand and plan strategies for both themselves and students practicing in high-risk clinical settings. Nursing schools should rethink all fourth-year students' experiences, perceptions, and feelings to minimize their susceptibility to physical and psychological distress.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Arts-based educational methodologies have been implemented in nursing and other health disciplines to promote person-centered approaches to care. Readers Theatre has been applied as a tool to promote compassionate and holistic approaches to care. Readers Theatre is a form of drama that requires participants to read aloud a scripted narrative to the audience. OBJECTIVES: To examine the extant literature on experiences of adult learners and educators in utilizing Readers Theatre, and its potential suitability for nurse education. The review question was: "What are the learning experiences of adult students and the teaching experiences of educators in the uptake of Readers Theatre?" DESIGN AND DATA SOURCES: Scoping review guidelines proposed by Arksey and O'Malley were adopted. Academic databases searches were carried out in ProQuest, JSTOR, Scholars Portal, EBSCO, Web of Science, PubMed, Expanded Academic ASAP, and Scopus. REVIEW METHODS: The search and keyword strategy was developed by two reviewers and approved by the lead author, and a librarian. All titles and abstracts were individually examined by the two reviewers with discrepancies discussed and resolved by both parties. Data were extracted for thematic analysis. RESULTS: A total of 31 studies were selected for the final sample. Four themes were identified within the scoping review relevant to Readers Theatre teaching-learning experiences: 1) principles and characteristics; 2) awareness, understanding, caring and empathy; 3) cross-disciplinary collaboration, interdisciplinary education, and knowledge dissemination; and 4) promoting students' skills. CONCLUSIONS: Readers Theatre has the potential to be utilized within a nursing curriculum, and particularly in theory and substantive class-based courses, through active group learning, in the application phase of knowledge acquisition.
