Effects of Digital Learning Materials on nursing students' mathematics learning, self-efficacy, and task value in vocational education

Numeracy Teaching for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

Education providers teach numeracy to undergraduate nursing students using a diverse range of approaches. Proficiency in numeracy skills is critical for patient safety; however, alarmingly, the accuracy rate of calculations by both undergraduate nurses and RNs is reported to be low.

METHOD

The literature search yielded 1,180 articles published between 1994 and 2022. The assessment of the studies was reported using the PRIMSA extension for Scoping Reviews.

RESULTS

Thirty-nine articles were included in the review. A diverse range of approaches were used to teach numeracy including learning theory, methods of calculation, learning environment, and examination aids.

CONCLUSION

This review highlights the plethora of approaches for teaching numeracy within undergraduate nursing education. Internationally, there were limited studies on the most effective teaching approaches; therefore, developing a robust evidence-based numeracy framework would be beneficial to guide non-nursing instructors in teaching undergraduate nurses. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(4):218-227.].

Numeracy Education for Health Care Providers: A Scoping Review

INTRODUCTION

Health numeracy (numerical literacy) refers to an individual's ability to use numerical information to make effective health decisions. Numeracy is fundamental in the role of a health care provider, forming the basis of evidence-based medicine and effective patient-provider communication. Despite a high level of education, many health care providers struggle with numeracy. Numeracy is often integrated into training curricula; however, teaching modality, competencies covered, learner satisfaction, and effectiveness of these educational interventions varies.

METHOD

A scoping review was conducted to explore and summarize what is known about numeracy skills education programs for health care providers. A comprehensive literature search was conducted from January 2010 to April 2021 in 10 databases. Controlled vocabulary terms and text words were used. The search was restricted to human studies, adults, and the English language. Articles were included if they were related to numeracy education for health care providers or trainees and provided details regarding methods, evaluation, and results.

RESULTS

The literature search retrieved 31,611 results and 71 met the inclusion criteria. Most interventions were conducted in a university setting, and targeted nursing students, medical students, resident physicians, and pharmacy students. Common numeracy concepts included statistics/biostatistics, medication calculations, evidence-based medicine, research methodology, and epidemiology. A variety of teaching modalities were used, which most often combined active approaches (eg, workshops, laboratories, small-group exercises, and discussion boards) with passive approaches (eg, traditional lectures and didactic teaching). Measured outcomes included knowledge and skills, self-efficacy, attitudes, and engagement.

DISCUSSION

Although efforts have been made to incorporate numeracy into training curricula, greater emphasis should be placed on developing strong numeracy skills in health care providers, particularly given the role numerical information plays in clinical decision making, evidence-based practices, and patient-provider communication.

Psychometric Properties of the Albanian Version of the Nursing Self-Efficacy Scale

There are few tools to ascertain self-efficacy, which is a valuable component of nursing skills. This study has tested the psychometric properties of an Albanian translation of the Nursing Profession Self-Efficacy Scale (NPSES), which is based on Bandura's theory of social cognition. Data were collected using questionnaires which were filled out by 423 nurses from the twelve provinces of the Albanian health system. The scale's content, face, and construct validity were evaluated. Reliability was verified using Cronbach's α and test-retest and by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficients. The original NPSES has two factors; for the A-NPSES analyzed in this study, four factors emerged from the factorial analysis of our reference sample: nursing care procedure situation, nursing research situation, nursing ethics situation, and nursing practice situation. Cronbach's α was 0.91, indicating that the tool is reliable. The results of this study demonstrate the validity and reliability of the Albanian version of the NPSES. This scale is a valuable tool for self-assessing nurses' self-efficacy. An adequate scale for measuring nurses' self-efficacy can be used to improve the quality of clinical nursing care.

Understanding Student Characteristics in the Development of Active Learning Strategies

Student evaluations after non-lecture, active learning sessions at Michigan State University, College of Osteopathic Medicine, have yielded bipartite responses with one group responding favorably and the other group negatively. The purpose of this study was to understand the characteristics, motivation, and learning strategies of medical students that find value in, appreciate, and perceive active learning sessions to be beneficial and those of students that do not. We generated a survey, based on the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), that included questions regarding overall student motivations for learning, learning strategies that students employed throughout medical school, and their perceptions of active learning. Following an active learning session on hyperammonemia, we administered the modified MSLQ survey. Using the results of this survey, we validated the modified MSLQ and identified correlations between student characteristics and their perception of the active learning session. We found that, in general, students with high task value, intrinsic goal orientation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and control of learning beliefs felt more positively about their experience in the active learning session. Understanding the characteristics, motivations, and learning strategies that help students find value in active learning sessions will help medical educators develop future curricular material so that these exercises will better engage and be more effective with a greater number of learners.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-022-01550-9.

Teaching Presence, Self-Regulated Learning and Learning Satisfaction on Distance Learning for Students in a Nursing Education Program

The novel coronavirus pandemic has dramatically affected how nursing students are educated. Distance learning has become the norm, and an evaluation of learning achievement is needed. This is a mixed-method study of teaching presence, self-regulated learning, and learning satisfaction in distance learning to evaluate the learning achievement of students in a nursing education program. Ninety-four students for quantitative and seven students for qualitative research were sampled. All the sampled students attend the nursing education program in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and were enrolled during the first semester of 2020. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 21.0, and qualitative data were analyzed via content analysis in NVivo 12. Teaching presence and self-regulated learning were identified as the factors affecting learning satisfaction. In a focus group interview, teaching presence increased when the students received feedback and saw the faces of their professors. Self-regulated learning occurred when they had opportunities to practice self-study and leadership and when they formed relationships between professors and colleagues. These methods have also been recognized to increase learning satisfaction. Considering the results of this study, it is necessary to develop teaching methods that enhance the learning satisfaction of students in distance learning nursing education programs.

Exploring the Conceptual Constructs of Learners' Goal Commitment, Grit, and Self-Efficacy

Although learners' success in learning has generally been attributed to cognitive factors, non-cognitive issues in education should be taken into consideration in the process of learning which affects learners' achievement. One of these issues, which become popular among researchers in the previous decade is grit, that is, posited as passion and perseverance thanks to its enduring quality and the other is self-efficacy. Another factor is goal commitment that talks about the way to reach a goal or insistent determinations to achieve a goal. The proposed review attempts to focus on these three factors in regulating students' learning achievement. Accordingly, some educational suggestions are offered for teachers, students, and syllabus designers.

The Relationship between Self-Confidence, Self-Efficacy, Grit, Usefulness, and Ease of Use of eLearning Platforms in Corporate Training during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This exploratory study contributes to the understanding of self-confidence as a predictor of self-efficacy, ease of use, and usefulness of eLearning platforms in corporate training. The present research explored the relationship among the employees’ beliefs regarding self-confidence, grit, ease of use, self-efficacy, and usefulness of eLearning platforms in their workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 307 responses from Romanian employees who used eLearning platforms in corporate training (females = 60.3%, males = 39.7%, age range of less than 24 years (12.1%) to over 55 years (6.2%)) were exploited for research. Data were analyzed through a path analysis model. Results indicate that grit (i.e., consistency of interest), self-efficacy, and perceived ease of use of eLearning platforms were considerably directly influenced by the self-confidence variable. Usefulness was directly influenced by the ease of use and was indirectly influenced by self-confidence. Mediation analysis indicated that full mediation occurs only through the ease of use of eLearning platforms variable in the relationship between self-confidence and usefulness. A unit increase in self-confidence will increase the expected value of grit by 0.54 units (t = 8.39, p < 0.001), will indirectly increase the expected value of usefulness through ease of use by 0.15 units (t = 2.39, p = 0.017), and will increase the expected value of self-efficacy by 0.53 units (t = 6.26, p < 0.001). In addition, perceived ease of use of eLearning platforms in corporate training fully mediated the relationship of usefulness regressed on self-confidence (β = 0.20, t = 2.51, p = 0.012). These novel results reveal the contributions of self-confidence, consistency of interest as a grit dimension, and ease of use of eLearning platforms in predicting lifelong learning solutions, which improve business outcomes. The related investigation and consequences were further considered.