Dear Editor
We thank Leigh et al (2020) for their article, illustrating the various digital tools and approaches that can be used to educate nurses during the coronavirus pandemic. As medical students, we feel encouraged to share our experiences, having now used digital learning throughout our entire third term this year, concluding with a final digital exam.
For many students, the current pandemic has challenged their relationships, work ethic, and mental health. Virtual tea and cake sessions create a sense of community to help students navigate these unprecedented times. At our university, clubs and societies have hosted these events for their members. Given that a significant proportion of the student body are not members of any such society, we urge that more should be done by universities to reach out to students during this time.
Leigh et al's (2020) article refers to a ‘box of tools’ that can help teach the nursing curriculum. With regards to technology, we primarily hosted our lectures using the Zoom webinar. We found that an ‘enquiry focused’ teaching style was effective on this platform. Learning from clinical scenarios was refreshing and preferred, compared with didactic lectures on diseases.
Additionally, with the anonymity of being able to ask the lecturer specific questions using the chat box, we believe many students felt empowered to ask questions digitally that they would not normally have asked in a lecture theatre. Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai (2013) cited reasons, such as self-consciousness and fear of negative evaluation, as to why this might be the case. This could therefore be something for education providers to integrate permanently into their teaching, even after returning to the lecture theatre.
‘We believe many students felt empowered to ask questions digitally that they would not normally have asked in a lecture theatre
Using virtual simulation as an alternative to clinical placements was perhaps undervalued in Leigh et al's article. Literature shows that high-fidelity simulation can be a good teaching tool, especially for nursing students. Findings from a home visit simulation created by Kim-Godwin et al (2013) showed that students’ self-confidence increased and that this may ‘translate into more productive home visit(s) in the community setting’.
As stated by Leigh et al, ‘students need to develop a clear sense of professional identity.’ Although this can be expected of any medical/nursing student by the time they graduate, it is humbling to know that our generation of students have had to adapt a new way of learning and coping to meet this expectation.