Background
Clinical nursing education provides opportunities for students to learn in multiple patient care settings, receive appropriate guidance, and foster the development of clinical competence and professionalism. Nurse preceptors guide students to integrate theory into practice, teach clinical skills, assess clinical competencies, and enhance problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Previous research has indicated that the teaching competencies of nurse preceptors can be transferred to students’ clinical learning to enhance their clinical competencies.
Objective
This study aimed to develop a clinical teaching blended learning (CTBL) program with the aid of web-based clinical pedagogy (WCP) and case-based learning for nurse preceptors and to examine the effectiveness of the CTBL program on nurse preceptors’ clinical teaching competencies, self-efficacies, attitudes toward web-based learning, and blended learning outcomes.
Methods
A quasi-experimental single-group pretest and posttest design was adopted. A total of 150 nurse preceptors participated in the CTBL program, which was conducted from September 2019 to December 2019. A set of questionnaires, including the clinical teaching competence inventory, preceptor self-efficacy questionnaire, attitudes toward web-based continuing learning survey, and e-learning experience questionnaire, was used to assess the outcomes before and after the CTBL program.
Results
Compared with the baseline, the participants had significantly higher total mean scores and subdomain scores for clinical teaching competence (mean 129.95, SD 16.38; P<.001), self-efficacy (mean 70.40, SD 9.35; P<.001), attitudes toward web-based continuing learning (mean 84.68, SD 14.76; P<.001), and blended learning outcomes (mean 122.13, SD 14.86; P<.001) after the CTBL program.
Conclusions
The CTBL program provides a comprehensive coverage of clinical teaching pedagogy and assessment strategies. The combination of the WCP and case-based approach provides a variety of learning modes to fit into the diverse learning needs of the preceptors. The CTBL program allows the preceptors to receive direct feedback from the facilitators during face-to-face sessions. Preceptors also gave feedback that the web-based workload is manageable. This study provides evidence that the CTBL program increases the clinical teaching competencies and self-efficacies of the preceptors and promotes positive attitudes toward web-based learning and better blended learning outcomes. The health care organization can consider the integration of flexible learning and intellect platforms for preceptorship education.
Nurse preceptors are key stakeholders in providing quality clinical education. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of nurse preceptors on a web-based clinical pedagogy program and clinical teaching. A descriptive qualitative design was adopted. The program was made accessible to the nurse preceptors who were assigned nursing students from July 2019 to June 2020. Upon completion of clinical teaching, a total of 19 nurse preceptors participated in four focus group discussions. The discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was conducted. Five themes, with 11 subthemes, emerged: (i) Undergoing the process of self-awareness and development; (ii) Mastering newly acquired skills to refine own teaching approach; (iii) Implementing consistent evaluation and constructive feedback; (iv) Dual roles and responsibilities of preceptor; and (v) Benefits and barriers of the program. This study highlighted the knowledge and skills preceptors gained through the program which gave them newfound confidence and facilitated their clinical teaching and evaluation. As the shift towards online learning progresses, web-based learning can be a useful platform for professional development of nurse preceptors.
The chapter provides a description of the first stage of an SoTL project consisting of an interdisciplinary research collaboration between nursing disciplinary experts from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (ALCNS) and academic literacy experts from the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). This stage includes the creation of appropriate lesson material for teaching critical reflection drawing on Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with nursing lecturers and the use of ‘model' reflective writing texts from high-scoring students in past cohorts analysed using Systemic Functional linguistic frameworks such as genre pedagogy, appraisal, The Legitimation Code Theory tool of semantic waves. The intervention was designed to improve the highly valued skill of ‘critical reflection' in nursing undergraduate clinical modules drawing on the use of rigorous theoretical frameworks that make visible salient linguistics resources and knowledge practices drawing on SFL and LCT.
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