2005 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Athlone Institute of Technology
Aideen O'Connor
Role of new technologies in nurse education

Nurse education involves a complex coordination and acquisition of multiple disciplines and skills, encompassing biology, psychology, sociology, technology, clinical and caring qualities, amongst others, with the demonstration of critical learning and analysis. The transfer of nurse education into the third level has involved a significant investment and presented an opportunity not only to reinvent the integration of the academic and theoretical components, but also to explore the benefits of new teaching strategies and technologies. The Department of Nursing & Health Science in AIT has endowed its new building with a range of technologies with significant implications for teaching and learning including:

  • �Pervasive computing facilities

  • �Server hosting of PowerPoint presentations with wireless remote PDA control and access

  • �Electronic response system for integrating test quiz assessments into lectures

  • �Video conferencing and wireless laptop provision for remote access to the web and institute electronic resources while students are on clinical placement

  • �Smart card technology for recording student attendance and payment for services as well as registration details and controlled access

  • �Mechatronic technology integrated into mannequins for simulating clinical procedures and various pathologies

  • �Digital recording and storage technology for teaching and assessing clinical procedures.

The new Nursing & Health Science building is the first fully wireless facility on the AIT campus. The corridors have been designed to become living and working spaces, with the provision of easy chairs in tandem with wireless network access. The department has also adopted, in all its teaching rooms, wireless technology developed by 3Touch Ltd, an AIT hosted company, which has re-engineered traditional data projector technology to incorporate server hosting of files and remote PDA presentation control.

Electronic Response Systems (ERS) are designed to improve the interactions that take place within a classroom or lecture hall environment. An ERS provides the lecturer with technology that supports student engagement, integrating seamlessly with lecture delivery or other cooperative learning techniques. ERS offers the ability to poll students for their perceptions and opinions. Analysis and presentation of results are almost instantaneous, allowing immediate feedback as individual or class outcomes. The familiarity of the 'Who wants to be a millionaire' concept eases its classroom adoption and the minimal barriers presented by the technology accelerate valid participation levels. Comprehension, interest, and engagement can easily be measured and improved using an ERS.


Human Patient Simulators

A crucial element of nurse education is the acquisition of clinical skills and their practice, delivery and assessment in a real clinical environment. Research has shown that students exhibit increased autonomy and self-confidence when delivering patient care after practising first with high-fidelity human patient simulators (HPS) or advanced mannequins. Practising clinical skills on a high-fidelity HPS allows students to learn in an adaptable, safe, educational, risk-free environment. The HPSs feature computerised, full-body, anatomically accurate mannequins, each of which has a trachea, an oesophagus, simulated lungs and a stomach, that allow students to practise a complete range of patient assessment and care procedures. Remotely controlled networkable digital cameras make it possible to record training sessions for later review by students and lecturers or for video-streaming in real time to any location. All clinical training technologies have been installed in a hospital simulation area of the building, which accurately mimics a real clinical environment.

General and psychiatric nursing students in AIT gain direct clinical experience while on placement in a host of geographically dispersed sites. To help create a more seamless continuity between the theory and practice elements and provide access to institute resources, while on placement, the department is experimenting with a combination of remote wireless network access and video conferencing facilities to create a virtual interface.

Technology is not a substitute for good creative and effective teaching but the installed base in the Department of Nursing & Health Science in AIT provides an integrated framework for investigative research studies of best teaching practice and technology utilisation in nurse education.

Contact: Ms Aideen O'Connor,
Head of Department of Nursing & Health Science,
Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone;
Tel: 090 64 22593; E-mail: [email protected]