Application of digital education in undergraduate nursing and medical interns during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review

Abstract

Background Due to the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. This declaration had an unprecedented impact on health profession education, especially the clinical clerkship of nursing and medical students. The teaching hospitals had to suspend traditional bedside clinical teaching and switch to digital education. Objective To systematically synthesize the available literature on the application of digital education in undergraduate nursing and medical interns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design A systematic review informed by PRISMA guidelines. Data sources Five electronic databases were systematically searched: PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE (OVID), CINAHL and the Cochrane Library. Review methods The retrieved articles were screened at the title, abstract, and full text stages. The Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality of quantitative and mixed-method studies. Then, two reviewers extracted the quantitative data of the included studies. Results A total of 4596 studies were identified following a comprehensive search, and 16 studies were included after removing duplicates and screening, which focused on undergraduate nursing students (3 studies) and medical students (13 studies). We found that the standalone digital education modalities were as effective as conventional learning for knowledge and practice. Different educational technologies have different effects on the knowledge and practice of interns. Conclusion Digital education plays a significant role in distance training for nursing and medical interns both now and in the future. The overall risk of bias was high, and the quality of evidence was found to be variable. There is a need for further research designing more quasi-experimental studies to assess the effectiveness of standalone digital education interventions for the remote training of nursing or medical interns to be fully prepared for emergencies.

Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Medical Education and Future Trends

“…Hao et al (16) noted in their review that the results of distance education for medical and nursing students were promising. The authors evaluated 5 databases: PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and the Cochrane Library.…”

“…They also stated that "Virtual simulation platforms such as i-Human® and Body In-teract™ were sufficiently utilized for case-based learning to present students with an interactive medical patient experience." (16,17).…”

Student preferences and perceptions of learning with vSim® for Nursing in pneumonia: a quasi-experimental study

“…The volunteers was conducted after obtaining signed informed consent from each participant. The nursing interns (nursing students) of three junior colleges who practiced in Jiangxi Cancer Hospital from July 2021 to April 2022 were enrolled, and the study objects were the nursing students who matched the inclusion criteria as follows: (1) nursing students studying in specialized colleges; (2)…”

“…With the continuous innovation of global health strategies and the severe trend of the global novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) pandemic, medical and nursing education face new and huge challenges, with the need to explore new teaching methods and technologies to improve (1,2). The teaching goal of professional nursing is to cultivate comprehensive nurses with a solid theoretical foundation, skilled basic nursing operation skills, and high clinical thinking ability to achieve health and medical care requirements.…”

Impact of the nursing comprehensive skill training course (NCST-C) on nursing students' metacognitive awareness: A quasi-experimental study

“…In China, undergraduate nursing courses were subject-oriented. Strong theoretical knowledge, nursing technical training and job competence were important characteristics of nursing practice [24] . In theory course, the combination of online and o ine teaching mode with group cooperative learning method had achieved remarkable results [25,26] , but they have not been found in the nursing skills training courses.…”