By: Iain McGowan & Maggie Bennett
These are challenging times and Nursing and Midwifery education. The last few months, with the COVID-19 situation, have challenged the creativity and resilience of nurses and midwives globally. Nursing & Midwifery students at QUB have played a pivotal role in supporting Northern Irelands registrants deal with the crisis as it unfolded. We write this at a time where it is possible that worst of pandemic may have passed, but the Covid 19 legacy is not just in the news headlines– the fundamental nature of nursing and midwifery education has changed.
Social distancing measures have drastically reduced the capacity for in class teaching. Large scale lectures will be curtailed and with the number of students in the school face to face tutorials are likely to reduce. As New York state governor stated in May,
‘The old model of everybody goes and sits in a classroom and the teacher is in front of that classroom, and teaches that class, and you do that all across the city, all across the state, all these buildings, all these physical classrooms … why, with all the technology you have? … It’s hard to change the status quo. But you get moments in history where people say, ‘OK I’m ready. I’m ready for change. I get it’. I think this is one of those moments.’
QUB generally, and the School of Nursing and Midwifery in particular, are embracing this challenge. Connected Learning has the potential to enhance the delivery of the educational experience for our students. This blog aims to provide a platform for staff and students to reflect upon and share their experiences of connected learning.
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About the authors
Iain McGowan is Senior Lecturer (Education) at QUB. He is a mental health nurse with a passion for finding ways to automate the more mundane aspects of academic life.
Maggie Bennett is a Lecturer (Education) at QUB. She believes teaching like nursing is fundamentally about caring.
Maggie and Iain are co-editors of this blog. To contact them, please see the contact us page