Abstract
• The Hospital Authority has stepped up social distancing to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. Clinical practicum and assessment for nursing students has been suspended since January in 2020.
• Final year nursing students are required to achieve clinical decision making for graduation and for the licensure of registered nurse in Hong Kong.
• The proposed project aims to provide support to teachers for the development of courseware and implementation of simulation-based Zoom learning (SBZL) activities to substitute clinical practicum. It also examines the effectiveness of SBZL on students’ clinical knowledge and decision making, perception of capabilities and teaching and learning environment, and teachers’ perception and experience of SBZL. Influential factors to the success and failure of SBZL will be identified.
• SBZL involves the use of case scenarios simulated in virtual wards to facilitate student learning and assessment and elicit their discussion on Zoom platform.
• Case scenarios will be developed by a research assistant (nurse) and corresponding instructors in The Nethersole School of Nursing. These scenarios will be simulated in our virtual wards and delivered online using Zoom. After students’ discussion, their individual commands (clinical decisions) will be executed in the virtual ward. Students will then know the consequence of their decisions in terms of the clinical responses of the simulated manikins.
• The outcomes are evaluated using a pre-test post-test design and a historical control by assessment score, Student Engagement Questionnaire, and qualitative individual interviews.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
• To identify the influential factors to the success and failure of simulation-based Zoom teaching and learning.
• To enhance students’ knowledge on clinical decision making, perception of capabilities and teaching and learning environment via Simulation-based Zoom Learning (SBZL).
Activities, process and outcomes
Students provided their plan of care (clinical decision making) through Zoom to the facilitator (laboratory staff) who operated the simulators to provide simulated feedbacks to the students.
Students were assessed for their perceived capability and teaching and learning environment, academic results in clinical decision making, and qualitative data to elicit their experiences and opinion on SBZL.
Deliverables and evaluation
The project was implemented as planned.
Positive results of SBZL in terms of students’ capabilities and perceptions of teaching and learning environment and clinical decision making as reflected by academic results were shown.
Three themes emerged from the interview transcripts centring SBZL experience, challenges, and various influential factors related to the Zoom-based simulation lab class for students and teachers, respectively.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
A poster and video was presented in the Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo at CUHK. Two workshops were attended by 100 teachers.
Impact on teaching and learning
Overall teaching staff and students highly valued this promising strategy to tackle the constraints of social distancing and COVID-19 pandemic.
