Professional Experience Placement

Dariel and Wharrad and Windle (2012) undertook a study to explore the factors influencing adoption of e-learning in nurse education. The authors introduce this paper by stating that although there has been an information communication technology revolution that has been acknowledged to change the way we live, work and learn, there is a discrepancy between adoption and reality.

The authors discuss the literature regarding adoption of e-learning. They discuss institutional factors such as lack of infrastructure, time or training. They also notes there were intrinsic factors such as motivation to engage with the technology and the significance to their discipline that influence use of technology. These authors concur there are still unexplained factors that influence academic’s use of e-learning.

The authors used Q methodology to investigate e-learning adoption. Four view points were identified as responses to e-learning adoption in the group of nurse educators in this study. These were the e-advocate; the humanist; the sceptic and the pragmatic. The e-advocates perceived that current healthcare system demands 21st century nurses to know how to use technology. The humanists had a strong belief that the use of technology in education causes the essence of nursing to be lost. These educators believe that human interaction is a crucial element of the learning process. The sceptic nurse educators have had previous negative experiences of e-learning and found that it was more of a problem than a solution due to the frustrations of using it. They believe there is insufficient evidence justifying a change in current teaching practice. They are different from the previous two groups who believe that nursing students learn best by finding out for themselves. The last group known as pragmatists believe that e-learning is a useful adjunct to face to face learning. These educators perceive that it is the nurse educator’s responsibility to cover all the content of the given topic.

The authors discussed the findings in the context with other literature on the subject. The authors stated that not adopting e-learning is not an act of resistance by technophobes, rather a justified response to the perceived needs and experiences of nurse educators. The authors conclude by suggesting that institutions need to address particular e-learning needs in each discipline. They indicated that e-learning promotion strategies and educational discourse should reflect the realities of teaching practice. These findings can inform policy makers, e-learning strategists and professional development staff on how to more effectively present and promote e-learning.

These findings may create challenges for clinical supervisors. Students who embrace e-learning opportunities provided may continue this practice in the professional experience setting.  Depending on the culture of the workplace this may be embraced or potentially viewed as inappropriate behaviour. Physical social presence is considered an important attribute at many workplaces. The use of ehealth and mhealth technology to promote patient safety through ‘just in time’ electronic communication may remain a futuristic notion. Additionally, I have found through my own research (in press) that often organisational policy or embedded culture may dissuade supervisors from engaging with ICT in the workplace. Additionally, the pragmatic group of educators may resist the introduction of technology in the workplace because students  need to learn while in practice, from them. The e-advocate educators could encourage students to engage in professional experience and undertake their own research to augment their knowledge about the conditions, diseases or procedures they are involved with.

If you have any comments about e-learning, ehealth or mhealth technologies and its use in the workplace, you are welcome to post them here.