Organisations – vision for the future of
tertiary education
It seems to
me that the main vision that both OP and the Government are calling for is
being able to provide the best quality education for the least amount of money.
I read this as meaning tertiary education to be up to date and needs to keep
abreast of what is happening and be able to predict what industry wants, i.e.
being able to educate students to meet the growing needs of industry, at the
least possible cost.
OP has a
vision of being an ‘Open Polytechnic’, inferring that the direction will be
online and etaught. I endorse this vision to a certain extent. However the
limitation for this is that in nursing students are required to complete
specific courses and have clinical hours. The School has sought feedback from
students annually and they all say they want more lectures and face to face
interaction with lecturers; which really goes against OP’s vision. That leaves
the question of how we meet the needs of the students and work towards OP’s vision.
One way we
can do this is by promoting the use of technology and this can happen by having
a ‘flexible learning’ approach. I will use an example from my teaching in
primary care. Primary health care has a dictum of 5 A’s: approachable,
available, appropriate, accessible and achievable. Flexible learning is
available, accessible, anywhere, anyhow, any time; and I could also add a 6th
A – adaptable
The OP
vision acknowledges the special nature of the institution, in that it has
campuses throughout the region. The School of Nursing does not have courses
available from other OP campuses however we do have a cohort of students based
in Timaru. If more of the courses could be etaught, it would make nursing more
able to be accessed from the campuses in Central Otago area.
One of the goals for OP is to foster lifelong
learning. This is essential for all, but particularly in nursing. There is a
saying “once a catholic, always a catholic’ and in nursing it is “once a nurse,
always a nurse”. Basically, this means that nurses are never ‘off duty’, hence,
it is important for the School to prepare nursing students to be work-ready and
to have a commitment for life-long learning.
hi Laurie
ReplyDeleteI hear you, sister! Creating possibilities for clinical education within a blended learning environment is a challenge, as you say the students are keen for more face-to-face. Nursing and midwifery (and I suspect clinical psychology, medicine, counselling....) are all about being 'in relation', and relational care, so there is a significant challenge posed by e-learning strategies. That's where blended learning has its edge, I believe, as there are obvious course components that can be 'learned' by online Moodle packages - theoretical content lends itself beautifully to this - but other course components require significant 'conversation' to occur to make sense of experience. Reflective writing is useful, but debriefing is critical!
Does the School of Nursing have small tutorial groups that meet regularly to offer safe spaces for students to talk about practice issues? In our school, these are the 'jewel in our crown', and while some components of our blended strategy receive very mixed feedback from students, our SPF Groups (student practice facilitator groups) which meet weekly, consistently are highly rated by the students.
By increasing the amount of online content, and balancing this with opportunities for face-to-face 'intensives', it has been possible for midwifery to expand its delivery of midwifery education to other areas, and thus utilise practice placements in more locations. Clinical hours thus become more easy to obtain, as there is less pressure on the secondary/tertiary setting, and staff feel more welcoming as preceptors when they feel less overloaded, which has positive spin-offs for the students. This has benefits for all; the students can remain in their (sometimes rural) localities, be educated by the professionals who will become their colleagues, in their own communities. Staff in these locations enjoy the opportunity to be involved in education, and often actively upskill as they engage in reciprocal learning with the students. Its a win-win.
Thanks Suzanne. You raise some very important issues.
DeleteI agree with the 'caring' professions being based on 'relational care', but I do think that 'conversations' can be held web-based. The potential for things like Skype is stunning and has the potential for the students to interact in a way that is relational.
Yes we do have debrief's to a certain extent. Nursing clinical placements are in primary care (community), medical/surgical & mental health. Each strand takes a different approach as do each year level. I teach in primary care in year 1 & 3. We have 2 hour weekly tutorials in year 1 and personally, my approach with the 1st years is primarily about ensuring safe practice and secondly about linking theory to practice. This year we have had 18 students in each group. This is as large a group as you can manage in order to allow each student time to discuss their clinical. However on saying that, the classroom or space that I had for my tut group was way too small this year. It limited the amount of group activity and interaction that could happen. Thus the physical environment is as important as the technological environoment (access & devices), and it also affects the teaching stratergies used as much as the technological strategies (OERs etc) used.