Department of Nursing, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 8;19(3):e0299967. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299967. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused several higher educational institutions to switch from traditional face-to-face to virtual learning medium. This abrupt shift came with new expectations, experiences and challenges to nursing/ midwifery students, particularly new users, and even more so when preparation, orientation, and support were lacking or ineffective. The present study therefore aimed at exploring the expectations, experiences and challenges of nursing students using the virtual learning medium during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was a descriptive phenomenological design using 12 purposively sampled nursing and midwifery students from a public university in Ghana. With the aid of a semi-structured guide, individual face-to-face interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim at a later time and deductively analyzed into themes using the customer experience execution model.
Participants were aged 22-36 years and involved equal number of males and females (n = 6), with majority being Christians (n = 11). Six themes were generated from the study: (1) "Initial thoughts and emotions" described participants initial reactions to the virtual educational medium during the pandemic; (2) "Expectations with the virtual medium" referred to the participants' anticipations regarding the convenience offered by the virtual medium; (3) "Experiences with the virtual medium" depicted the participants' recognition of both positive and negative encounters while using the virtual learning platform; (4) "Evaluation and recommendation" described participants' reports of meeting expectations and recommendations they made to enhance virtual learning; (5) "Challenges and limitations of the virtual medium" typically represented the obstacles encountered by nursing/ midwifery students when they embraced the virtual medium; (6) "Prospects of the virtual medium" referred to participants' views on the future of the virtual medium.
The study has brought to light that the virtual education environment comes with its own expectations, experiences and challenges to students. Provision of adequate support such as orientation and simulation laboratories by higher education institutions to satisfy students' needs is necessary to enhance nursing education.
COVID-19 大流行导致多所高等教育机构从传统的面对面教学转变为虚拟学习模式。这种突然的转变给护理/助产专业的学生带来了新的期望、体验和挑战，尤其是对新用户而言，而在准备、指导和支持不足或无效的情况下，情况更是如此。因此，本研究旨在探讨 COVID-19 大流行期间护理学生使用虚拟学习媒介的期望、体验和挑战。
这是一项描述性现象学设计，使用加纳一所公立大学的 12 名有目的抽取的护理和助产专业学生。在半结构化指南的帮助下，对个人进行了面对面访谈，并在以后的时间里逐字转录，然后使用客户体验执行模型对主题进行演绎分析。
参与者的年龄在 22-36 岁之间，男性和女性的人数相等（n=6），其中大多数是基督徒（n=11）。研究产生了六个主题：（1）“最初的想法和情绪”描述了参与者在大流行期间对虚拟教育媒介的最初反应；（2）“对虚拟媒介的期望”是指参与者对虚拟媒介提供的便利性的预期；（3）“对虚拟媒介的体验”描述了参与者在使用虚拟学习平台时对积极和消极体验的认识；（4）“评估和建议”描述了参与者对满足期望的报告以及他们为增强虚拟学习而提出的建议；（5）“虚拟媒介的挑战和限制”通常代表护理/助产学生在接受虚拟媒介时遇到的障碍；（6）“虚拟媒介的前景”是指参与者对虚拟媒介未来的看法。
该研究揭示了虚拟教育环境给学生带来了自己的期望、体验和挑战。高等教育机构提供足够的支持，如指导和模拟实验室，以满足学生的需求，这对于加强护理教育是必要的。
