Nursing Home Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: To help older adults living in nursing homes (NHs) while educating medical and physician assistant (MD/PA) students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using a multicomponent iterative process, we piloted multiple student led service-learning projects in 2 NHs and 1 hospice agency in the Midwest. Pre-post online student surveys were completed to match student interests with facility needs and to assess learning and obtain feedback regarding their experiences. Results: All 12 interested students completed the initial survey; n = 23 ultimately volunteered (word of mouth); n = 11 (48%) completed the follow-up survey. Opportunities were medical record transfer, grounds beautification, resident biographies, window entertainment, and No-One-Dies-Alone program. Students averaged 9.2 volunteer hours; stated the opportunities were enjoyable, clinically applicable, and socially distanced; and reported learning about unique experiences of older adults in NHs. Discussion: Despite limitations created by the pandemic, mutually beneficial and safe opportunities remain for education in the NH setting.

Engaging nursing students in a COVID‐19 Point‐of‐Care rapid screening clinic

“…Our paper highlights the value of leveraging the knowledge and skills of nursing students to meet the needs of the community, while simultaneously creating a curricular value proposition. Others have also reported the mutual benefit of educational and service learning initiatives to support public health in the pandemic (Gresh et al, 2021;Ferguson et al, 2021) Together, these findings suggest the potential to prepare for future pandemics, and novel ways to support nursing education going forward (Dewart et al, 2020).…”

Service-learning under COVID-19: A scoping review of the challenges and opportunities for practicing service-learning in the ‘New Normal’

“…In order to successfully complete the ‘Pandemic Medicine Elective’ course, apart from completing service-learning hours, attending virtual classes, and being part of the ‘Student Initiatives’, students had to complete a reflection paper “to share their experiences during the course and describe the impact the elective had on their perspective as future physicians” (p. 845). Importantly, as the evidence suggests that ICT can be strategically and functionally adopted in instances of adapting service-learning projects to the COVID-19 pandemic ( * Archie-Booker et al, 2020 , * Doody et al, 2020 , * Lin and Shek, 2021 , * Salter et al, 2020 , * Tian and Noel, 2020 ) as well as to support newly developed projects during the pandemic ( * Bickerton et al, 2020 , * Elengickal et al, 2021 , * Ferguson et al, 2021 , * Grilo et al, 2021 , * Lewis and Strano‐Paul, 2021 , * Solá and Marquez, 2020 , * Tsima et al, 2020 ), practitioners may consider harnessing the potential of ICT in service-learning regardless of the presence of disasters/crises. For example, a hybrid mode may be adopted to provide students with greater flexibility and autonomy in choosing how they want to be part of service-learning activities.…”

“…It is important to note, however, that the dependency on ICT to support service-learning programs also introduced challenges for all stakeholders involved. As not all participants had the same level of competencies to operate digital devices (i.e., the ‘know-hows’), comfort in interacting in a virtual space and/or through distant communication methods, and/or uninterrupted access to devices and virtual space(s) ( Tian and Noel, 2020 ), some of the reviewed studies raised the concern that ICT-mediated communication might have negatively affected the quality of interpersonal engagement, resulting in lack of feedback from clients ( * * Ferguson et al, 2021 ) or fatigue from having to deal with long email chains ( Salter et al, 2020 ). Also, in interaction with the general troubles of organizing activities under COVID-19 (e.g., spontaneous adaptations and uncertainties due to rapidly changing policies/rules), ICT dependency resulted in difficulties of, for example, ensuring quality placement experiences ( Lalloo et al, 2021 ) and/or adequate preparedness of staff to effectively execute ICT-mediated supervision ( Salter et al, 2020 ).…”