The Effects of Emergency Clinical Practicum at School During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Clinical practicum at emergency department has been suspended during the coronavirus pandemic. Development of innovative clinical education pedagogies is crucial for improving the emergency care knowledge for nursing students, especially those who did not have chance for clinical placement in accident and emergency department. Objective: This quasi-experimental study was to determine whether a hybrid use of flipped classroom and high-fidelity simulations could enhance the knowledge, attitudes, motivation and satisfaction of undergraduate nursing students toward the emergency clinical learning in this critical period. Methods: Three hundred and twenty-two year 4 and 5 undergraduate nursing students were provided with 160 hours of online flipped lectures and high-fidelity simulations. Emergency nursing knowledge of nursing students was tested via multiple choice questions pre- and post-programme. The attitude, motivation and satisfaction with the programme were also measured after the programme was finished. Results: The mean post-test knowledge scores were statistically significantly higher than the pre-test in basic life support nursing, advanced care life support nursing, trauma and disaster nursing, triage nursing and medical and surgical emergency nursing. Additionally, the scores indicated that the students generally had a positive attitude, motivation and satisfaction towards the hybrid teaching methods. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the implementation of the hybrid teaching methods for clinical learning, as it motivates students and develops their confidence over a short clinical learning period. Further development of innovative clinical education pedagogies is crucial to maintain students’ clinical competences when clinical practicum is not allowed beyond the pandemic