Challenges and opportunities in graduate nursing education by distributed learning in Canada and Brazil

Abstract

In this paper, the authors share their experience related to graduate nursing programs offered by distributed learning (DL) in Canada and Brazil. Although degrees offered by DL are often the subject of criticism, the authors' experience has been that learning outcomes have been very good. Nevertheless, a number of challenges and opportunities have been encountered including those associated with flexibility of the program, delivering practice courses at a distance, facilitating interaction, faculty workload and preparation and student support, Newer technologies that may assist in this effort are identified. Despite the challenges encountered, students rate the program highly and ongoing efforts are underway to ensure excellence of such flexible innovative graduate programs in nursing. The authors argue that despite the challenges, DL programs offer high quality graduate education that meets the needs of many nurses.

Aspectos Da Educação a Distância Em Saúde No Brasil: Uma Análise Das Publicações (2007 a 2014)

“…No que tange à área da saúde, em particular, a EaD se apresenta como uma importante alternativa para a qualificação e atualização dos profissionais, por conta da flexibilidade de horário e/ou de espaço, principalmente para enfermeiros e médicos -que acumulam diversas jornadas de trabalho (RODRIGUES e PERES, 2008;MOLZAHN et al, 2009;LEITE et al, 2010;ROJO et al, 2011), e também pela possibilidade de capacitar um número considerável de profissionais, num curto período de tempo, e com uma certa redução de custo, se comparado a capacitação do mesmo quantitativo em eventos presenciais (POLI, 2009).…”