Students' perceptions of debating as a learning strategy: A qualitative study

Undergraduate nursing students' responses to an end-of-life educational session

End-of-life care is an important component of healthcare students' education. The purpose of this study was to explore nursing students' perspectives of end-of-life decision-making and end-of-life care following an ethics session during the 2020-2021 academic year. A qualitative study was performed. Thirty-six undergraduate nursing students in their junior year at a private, Catholic university located in the northeast United States participated. Two nursing faculty and one bioethicist conducted an educational session on end-of-life care developed with a focus on decision-making, autonomy and dignity while employing debate pedagogy as a teaching modality. Following the session, the students were given a letter of solicitation with a link to a Qualtrics survey with four open ended questions related to end-of-life care. Four main themes, as being perceived by students, were discovered: decision-making, autonomy, the nurses' role, and the interprofessional team as important components of end-of-life care. Implications for future research include debate pedagogy as a method to teach end-of-life care and ethical decision-making as well as quantitative research or mixed methods with larger sample sizes and across health professions.

Debates as an Active Learning Strategy to Enhance Students' Knowledge of Ethics in Professional Nursing Practice and Health Care

BACKGROUND

Ethical debates as an active learning strategy encourage students to think critically through complex ethical issues while using evidence-based literature to compare views and support decision-making actions that affect patient outcomes.

PROBLEM

The current complexity of health care implies that nurses will continue to encounter ethical dilemmas that demand essential knowledge of ethical principles, critical thinking strategies, and practical communication skills.

APPROACH

Student groups were assigned a health care-related ethical issue and collaborated to present their pro or con position. The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Baccalaureate Essentials guided the structure of the student debates.

CONCLUSION

Utilizing the ANA Code and AACN Essentials as supportive frameworks to guide students' ethical debate preparation and execution enhanced students' knowledge and supported their critical thinking about ethical issues in health care.

Evaluating the Group Debate Activity as a Student-Centered Approach in Microbiology Course for PharmD Students: An Observational Study

BACKGROUND

Group debate is an educational strategy meant to equip undergraduate students with enhanced communication skills as well as the understanding of complex topics. Many controversial topics in the microbiological field pose challenges to the pharmacist's ability to attribute a specific opinion to its supported clinical evidence and to discuss these topics with confidence.

METHODS

A total of 76 second-year pharmacy students who enrolled in a PharmD program participated in the group debate as part of the student assessment in microbiology course. The students prepared selected topics on controversial issues in microbiology, which were presented as a debate. Post-debate questionnaire was distributed to the students and used to measure student perceptions.

RESULTS

The majority of the students (82.89%) demonstrated an improvement in their understanding of the topics after the debate. The highest percentage was recorded from one topic group (97.37%) which stated that they had improved understanding after the debate. About a third of the total students reported great improvement in their communication skills.

CONCLUSION

This debate group clearly provided the students with high confidence in presenting their arguments from relevant scientific information gathered from existing literature. It also enhanced their understanding of complex and controversial microbiology topics that will be needed during their pharmacy education.

The relationships between the types of learning approaches used by undergraduate nursing students and their academic achievement: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Identifying and promoting an appropriate learning approach among nursing students is important in nursing education. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between undergraduate nursing students' approaches to learning and their academic achievement. A systematic review with a quantitative synthesis was conducted. Abstract searches of CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, ERIC and Scopus were conducted in November 2020 to identify the relevant publications. In total, 11 studies involving 12 cohorts were identified as eligible for the meta-analysis. Based on nine studies with 10 cohorts (N = 1830), a significant positive relationship between the deep approach to learning and academic achievement was identified, with the summary effect size of r = 0.259 [95% CI: 0.184, 0.330]. In addition, based on 11 studies with 12 cohorts (N = 2138), a significant negative correlation between the surface approach to learning and academic achievement was found, with the summary effect size of r = -0.247 [95% CI: -0.318, -0.174]. Higher education institutions should encourage the use of the deep approach and discourage the surface approach to learning by utilising appropriate educational instructions and assessment methods.

Encouraging Undergraduate Marketing Students to Reflect on Critical Thinking and the Digital Gender Divide

In today’s society where there is an abundance of accessible, complex, and often false information, critical thinking (CT) is an essential skill so that citizens in general and students in particular can make complex decisions based on scientific evidence, rather than on prejudices, biases, and pre-established beliefs. In this context, the purpose of this study is to discover whether Active Learning (AL) methodology, using different technologies, contributes to improving the CT of the student body, applying it to the Digital Gender Divide (DGD). Three questionnaires were used to collect information, using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Open-ended questions are included for fuller answers, which are complemented by content analysis of the recordings and virtual presentations made. The results show that the AL methodology favours the development of CT in the DGD in a remarkable way. Likewise, the various technologies implemented in the methodology (e.g., the Google Applications Site, online round table discussions, role-plays, virtual presentations, and forms) are relevant to improving CT in DGD. It concludes by recommending the implementation of AL with CT as in the one carried out, to help prepare better professionals and raise awareness of how to reduce the DGD.

The relevance of Xenophon's Anabasis and Plato's Meno to nursing

The current situation in which the humanities are disparaged affects all university disciplines, including nursing, in whose historical evolution the humanities have always been present in one form or another. Looking beyond this disrepute, this study proposes that nursing renew its attention to classical philosophy. Specifically, it invites a close reading of Xenophon's Anabasis and Plato's Meno, to get three related goals: to show how the use of ancient texts are very valuable tools for the philosophical initiation of nursing students and can help them reflect on their choice of nursing as a practical activity; to reflect on the problem of virtue and the nature of the good life; and to show how the interaction with ancient texts allows students to reflect on questions and issues of life, theirs and others, that are not open to investigation through a purely scientific method. Consequently, both Anabasis and Meno readings strengthen the intellectual relationship between philosophy and nursing, enabling the latter to delve deeper into the key questions of its own thought as a discipline.