For nursing education in a post-pandemic landscape, technologies such as simulation will continue to help educate students. And while plenty of people are interested in becoming nurses, not enough nurse educators may be available, and limited access to clinical placements may hinder those who want to enter the profession.
Remote teaching and simulations: what should we retain post-Covid?
During the pandemic, increased use of technology helped nursing students at the University of Maryland School of Nursing meet their competencies, according to Bimbola F. Akintade, Ph.D., MBA, MHA, ACNP-BC, NEA-BC, FAANP, associate professor and associate dean, master’s program at the school. Because students couldn’t physically care for patients in the hospital as part of their clinicals, the university transitioned to simulation. Using its 25 simulation labs and simulation team, the school made greater use of both high-fidelity simulations in the lab, as well as asynchronous virtual simulation.
In entering a more endemic stage, the university is now evaluating what courses should remain online. The school, says Akintade, is revising its entire curriculum based on the new Essentials from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). “This is a perfect time,” he says, “while we’re revising the curriculum, to identify what courses could stay online to create additional flexibilities for our adult learners.” The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education provides a framework for preparing individuals as members of the discipline of nursing.
“For a long time, we’ve convinced ourselves that there was this primary way of teaching, of education dissemination to students. And the pandemic turned that on its head. Certain courses that we believe could not be effectively taught in a virtual space could be because we did it. Now we’re charging ourselves to go back and reevaluate how we taught our courses and identify what courses could successfully remain virtual.”
The Maryland State Board of Nursing, says Akintade, had allowed up to 50% of clinical experience to be done through simulation. The school, taking a more conservative approach, kept that to 10% to 20%. That increased significantly during the pandemic, he notes.
“Now we’re being intentional about reevaluating that to determine how much of our clinical experience for students could be accomplished through simulation,” he says. “We anticipate that we will do more simulation than we did pre-pandemic.”
Finding faculty
In an endemic healthcare landscape, finding nursing educators and clinical placement spots may pose a challenge. Clinical placement spots, says Akintade, who has been at the school since 2011, may be the more rate-limiting factor in growing a nursing education program.
Though interest in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs is strong, thousands of qualified students are turned away from four-year colleges and universities each year, notes an AACN press release about the association’s just-released “Annual Survey of Institutions with Baccalaureate and Higher Degree Nursing Programs.” Given the persistent shortage of nurse faculty, AACN remains concerned that 14,743 applications were turned away from graduate programs, which may further limit the pool of potential nurse faculty, according to the release. The primary barriers to accepting all qualified students at nursing schools, says the release, continue to be insufficient clinical placement sites, faculty, preceptors, and classroom space, as well as budget cuts.
The nursing shortage, says Akintade, has not helped matters, with older nurses retiring and some younger nurses leaving the profession. “The response is growth,” he says. “We recognize the need for additional nurses in the state of Maryland. So our baccalaureate program is growing.” The university has a target of enrolling over 500 nursing students a year in either the BSN program or entry-into-practice master’s program.
No lack of interest
One unalloyed bright spot from the pandemic is new interest in healthcare professions. The AACN survey finds that student enrollment in entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs increased by 3.3% in 2021. Growth was seen in both baccalaureate programs and doctor of nursing practice (DNP) programs.
The pandemic has exposed many individuals who never considered becoming a healthcare professional to that idea, suggests Akintade. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of our applicants even through COVID.”
“We’ve been the sung and sometimes, unfortunately, the unsung heroes through the pandemic. Nursing as a profession was really put on the forefront through the pandemic.”
Now a freelance writer and editor, he served as a Director at Elsevier, where he was instrumental in the development of major online nursing reference and procedure products. Previously, he served as Editorial Director at Nurses.com, one of the first nursing websites, and was Executive Editor at Nursing magazine, a premier large-circulation journal.
Today, he continues to serve nurses and other clinicians by reporting on developments and trends in healthcare with meaning, context, and insight.
- Claim Your Future: High School Initiative Prepares Students for Healthcare Careers - February 12, 2024
- Study Reveals the Enduring Effects of the COVID Pandemic - May 9, 2023
- New Program Addresses Nurse Burnout - February 14, 2023