Measuring perceived learning gains of undergraduate nursing students in ICT skills: One group pre-test and post-test design

Purpose: This study aimed to measure learning gains during an ICT training intervention in first-year students completing a four-year undergraduate nursing degree. Methodology: This study adopted a quasi-experimental, one group pre-test and post-test design. The intervention effectiveness was measured using individual single-student normalised gains, g; class average normalised gain, 〈g〉; and average single-student normalised gain, g(ave). Results: In this study, the class average normalised gains, 〈g〉 ranged from 34.4% to 58.2%, and the average of single student normalised gains, g(ave) ranged from 32.4% to 50.7%. The overall class average normalised gain 〈g〉 was 44.8%, and the average of the single student normalised gain was 44.5%, with 68% of students having a normalised gain of 30% and above, indicating that the intervention was effective. Conclusion: Similar interventions and measurements are recommended to all health professional students during their first academic year to pave a foundation for ICT usage for academic purposes

An Analysis of Evidence-Based Practice Curriculum Integration in Australian Undergraduate Nursing Programs

Evidence-based practice (EBP) remains a relatively new concept to nursing, creating many challenges in relation to curriculum evaluation. Most of the available literature on EBP focuses to a great extent on clinical practice. There is limited literature available addressing the incorporation of EBP into nursing curricula, particularly at the undergraduate level. Existing literature highlights discrepancies in how EBP is implemented into nursing curricula, and reveals ambiguity in defining the concepts of EBP, appropriate place in the course in which to initiate EBP skills training, and in merging EBP with the research process. In the Australian context and internationally, EBP is variably addressed within undergraduate nursing education

Advancing Ehealth Education for the Clinical Health Professions

This is the final report of a project that aimed to encourage and support program coordinators and directors of Australian undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs in all allied health, nursing and medical professions to address the need for Ehealth education for entry-level clinical health professionals

The practice of web conferencing: where are we now?

The use of web conferencing tools to support learning and teaching and facilitate interaction and collaboration is common in many higher education environments as is the replacement of face-to-face meetings with virtual collaboration tools. This paper reports on Phase 3 of a trial of web conferencing conducted at a regional Australian university and further explores the use of web conferencing to support and enhance learning and teaching. Preliminary findings from Phases 1 and 2 of the trial have been reported on in a previous paper. The action research method which framed the initial trial has again been applied to Phase 3. In Phase 1, collaborative mathematical problem-solving in an undergraduate course was carried out using web conferencing and tablet PCs. In addition, students in postgraduate Education courses were linked across the globe to participate in interactive and collaborative web conference activity. In Phase 2, a university-wide trial across disciplines was conducted. Phase 3 represents an analysis of feedback received from teachers who were involved in Phases 1 and 2 and who have had some time to reflect on the impact web conferencing has had on their teaching practice. From this, and their own experience, the authors make further observations regarding the use of web conferencing to support learning and teaching and raise a number of questions and issues to guide future research

Identifying opportunities to integrate digital professionalism into curriculum: a comparison of social media use by health profession students at an Australian university in 2013 and 2016

Social media has become ubiquitous to modern life. Consequently, embedding digitalprofessionalism into undergraduate health profession courses is now imperative and augmentinglearning and teaching with mobile technology and social media on and off campus is a currentcurriculum focus. The aim of this study was to explore whether patterns of social media use forpersonal or informal learning by undergraduate health profession students enrolled at an Australianuniversity across four campuses has changed over time. A previously validated online survey wasadministered in 2013 to a cohort of health profession students as part of an Australian survey. In 2016,the same survey was distributed to a later cohort of health profession students. Three open-endedquestions to elicit descriptive information regarding the use of social media for study purposeswere added to the later survey. A comparative analysis of both cohorts was undertaken and socialmedia acceptance and penetration was shown to increase. Health profession students are nowmore interactive users of Facebook and Twitter, and they have become more familiar with careerdevelopment sites, such as LinkedIn. The maturation of social media platforms within a three-yearperiod has created realistic opportunities to integrate social media for personal and study purposesinto the health profession education curriculum to ensure student understanding of the necessity formaintaining digital professionalism in the workplace