Abstract
An increasing number of nurses undertake continuing education via information and communication technologies. Development of best practice, based on students’ own experiences, is vital in order to create the most effective learning environment. This paper describes the challenges to and facilitators of learning for a group of Norwegian nurses enrolled in a postgraduate course in wound management delivered by blended learning, which combines face-to-face and online components. Data was gathered through a focus group interview and inductive content analysis was used to identify themes emerging from the data. A number of both personal and academic facilitators, and challenges impacted on these adult learners. Technical and academic problems combined with a lack of time created a steep learning curve for these adult students. Valuable feedback, IT support at home and an increased competence eventually gave them a foundation for lifelong learning. Blended learning is an important way to offer postgraduate courses to give adults access to continuing educational programmes independent of geographical location. Both academic and personal challenges and facilitators should be taken into account when educators design blended learning courses in order to facilitate an effective learning environment for adults through the best blend of face-to-face and online learning.
Highlights
Nurses comprise the largest group of health care professionals in Norway (Statistics Norway, 2004)
Studies of satisfaction and motivation in internet-supported learning are dominated by quantitative research (Bekele, 2010) and this study addresses the gap in qualitative research by investigating the experience of a cohort of Norwegian Registered Nurses undertaking a postgraduate course in wound management through blended learning
These two themes there were further able to be subdivided into two related domains: personal challenges or facilitators and academic challenges or facilitators
Summary
Nurses comprise the largest group of health care professionals in Norway (Statistics Norway, 2004) Given this fact, the provision of quality health care services depends to a considerable extent on the knowledge and skills of nurses, individually and collectively. Accompanying this has been a focus on nurses as independent lifelong learners (Eason, 2010; Kedge & Appleby, 2009; Roberts, 2011), which to be effective requires a deep approach to learning (Cowan, Roberts, Fitzpatrick & While, 2004), information literacy, writing skills (Tarrant, Dodgson & Law, 2008) and evidence-based nursing (Eason, 2010) This has resulted in nurses in many parts of the world having to undertake continuing education in order to maintain licensure or registration
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