Professional Experience Placement

This study was undertaken in 2015 a year after the initial focus group study that explored the challenges, risks, barriers and benefits of mobile learning in healthcare environments. The previous participants were nurse supervisors who were invited to attend a new workshop where the research findings were presented. The purpose of this study was to clarify priorities for action, provide evidence and focus impetus for advocating the development of standards and guidelines necessary to support progression of mobile learning at point of care to the installation stage within the implementation framework at an organisational level. Fifteen nurse supervisors attended the workshop. Participants then undertook activities to explore and expand upon the findings, and to enable identification of priorities for focus in the next stage of the research.

Participants undertook four activities and the first asked them to rank their own perception of order of priority for progressing the use of mobile technology at point of care. Exploration and prioritisation of themes provided, demonstrated the limited adoption of mobile learning.  The article provides a Table and the findings suggest professionalism, accessibility (physical) and human factors continue to dominate as the main barriers and challenges to be overcome. These themes are pertinent at an individual level because they impede nursing practice but require addressing at an organisation and systems level before progression to the next stage of implementation can be achieved.

Due to current circumstances precluding access to mobile technology, the themes of legal frameworks and workplace safety were ranked as less important. Over time as accessibility improves, these themes should become a priority. There was also recognition that learning is important, but less so, than professionalism. If access to the Internet/wifi is unavailable at point of care, expanding knowledge in real-time is not an option and therefore, of no priority.

Other activities included how they could progress the use of mobile learning in the workplace were listed on a whiteboard and discussed, and the results were photographed and tabulated to explore the priorities of the group. Lastly, a pre-formatted prompt sheet was distributed, so participants could list the perceived top three mobile learning issues for both nurse supervisors and students. Respondents indicated access to Internet/wifi was the most important issue to be addressed for both nurse supervisors and students. Cost was also an issue, depending on whether mobile devices were ‘bring your own’ or provided by academic institutions or organisations. These issues as confirmed by participants will continue to hinder progression of mobile technology access until the benefits of use outweigh non-use are recognised at an organisation level. The nurse supervisors perceived that students needed access to credible contemporary information. They also indicated students required guidelines and codes of conduct for appropriate use to prevent fear of ‘missing out behaviour’ or distraction.

The recent release of the Australian Digital Health Agency  National Digital Health Strategy  supports the findings of this research. Priority 6 acknowledges there is a need for a health workforce that is informatics- ready and capable of using health technology and informatics within the work environment. There will need to be significant upskilling of healthcare professionals as the literature shows that although technology is ubiquitous in our environment it does not necessity translate to competency in using tools, equipment and information resources within healthcare settings for patient interaction or for learning and teaching of health professionals.

If you have comments about upskilling the health workforce you are welcome to post them here. Please join us @PEPcommunity.