NURS-FPX6109 Assessment 2 Vila Health The Impact Of Educational Technology

NURS-FPX6109 Assessment 2 Vila Health The Impact of Educational Technology

The Impact of Educational Technology

Nursing education is ever under constant change due to the dynamicity of the healthcare and nursing fields. Educational technologies such as online programs have improved education through efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and convenience to educators and students. Virtual simulations are gaining familiarity among nursing students. They can potentially enhance continuing professional education and have various effects on the stakeholders. This essay evaluates nursing simulations, their impact on the organization, and the roles of nurse educators in their implementation.

New Educational Technology Under Consideration

The new technology under consideration is virtual nursing simulations. Simulations are interactive technologies that utilize computers to allow students to interact with virtual patients, providing an experience parallel to the real world. Simulations entail various programs and integrated learning environments that introduce knowledge and skills to a student.

The programs deliver knowledge and assess students’ skills in virtual environments that meet their learning needs (Cook et al., 2018). Simulations help patients implement their knowledge and skills in a virtual environment, thus allowing students to perform their skills and implement their knowledge repeatedly.

Nursing professionals prepare nursing simulations and develop them to meet learners’ needs. They are fitted with measurement metrics to help the students gauge their skills and determine areas for possible improvement. Huun (2018) notes that simulations help augment clinical learning, and they fill in the gaps that students may not have a chance to experience in the clinical areas. These simulations can also be accessed anytime, allowing nurses to practice their knowledge and skills after work or free time.

The technology has marked success in increasing knowledge and skills among nursing students and can be used in hospital environments to improve nurses’ experiences. The technology can improve continuing professional education and introduce the much-needed evaluation missing in many other educational technologies (Huun, 2018).

Proposed Changes and the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals

Organizational interventions must help meet the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals. The organization’s strategic mission is to improve individual and community health by ensuring excellence in medical education, research, and clinical care. The goals are to provide exemplary patient and healthcare provider experiences, better patient outcomes, and an overall healthier society. The educational technology will impact all nursing professionals’ uniform skills and knowledge, hence the uniformity of care interventions (Moslehi et al., 2018). The technology will also reduce conflicts when individuals have access to conflicting information, an everyday phenomenon when healthcare providers get information from different sources.

The simulations will also help reduce the time and errors when care providers practice new skills and knowledge with actual patients. Thus, it will help improve the quality of services and patients’ and care providers’ experiences (Moslehi et al., 2018). The hospital values excellence and discovery, diversity, leadership, and integrity. The new technology supports these values by increasing knowledge and skills among nurses, promoting discovery learning, and increasing their integrity in learning through graded work. The proposed changes will produce a dynamic shift in continuing professional education promoting the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals.

Impact of the Proposed Change on the Organization

The proposed educational changes will affect the organization, staff, and daily routines. The changes will affect educational activities because, most of the time, setting aside for continuing professional education forums will not be necessary. This will require nurses to plan their free time to learn and enhance their skills. Due to the flexibility of virtual simulations, nurses can access, learn, and improve their skills during their free time (Shoey & Ng., 2021). The change will also increase nurses’ efficiency in carrying out routine activities.

Virtual simulations impact uniform nursing skills; hence, they will increase the quality and uniformity of care and improve patient care and patient outcomes (Huun, 2018). It will also allow nursing leaders to control continuing education among many institutions. The organization will measure the impact by evaluating the outcomes of the education and skill impaction forums. Continuing education targets various issues such as medication errors, burn-out, workplace violence, and healthcare conditions such as diabetes (self-care), cancer (pain management), and heart disease (risk reduction). The organization will measure the outcomes of these issues and conditions to determine the impact of educational technology (Kang et al., 2022).

Educational technologies may fail due to various reasons, such as strong resistance to change, incompatibility, or poor planning. The institution should not wholly eliminate existing technologies and retain them as a backup for the new technology. It will ensure the organization does not incur further costs trying to reinstall previous educational technologies. It will also help prevent the halting of continuing professional technology. Preparation with a backup plan consisting of existing technologies will help avoid disruption in the routine organizational operations (Cook et al., 2018).

Nurse Educator Roles in Implementing the Change

The nurse educator has various roles. These include designing and proposing changes to a curriculum. They research best practices in nursing education; hence, they are the right individuals to engage in addressing changes to educational technologies. Nurse educators prie They are interested more in the learning and teaching processes and content. These professionals plan classes, study programs, and teach students in various learning environments (Fritz, 2018). Besides, nurse educators also advise the administration on the best decisions regarding nursing education, such as the best teaching and learning activities. They also evaluate students to determine the effectiveness of the lessons.

Nurse educators will research virtual simulations’ compatibility, effectiveness, efficacy, and relevance in nursing education. They will also evaluate its impact on various stakeholders: patients, organizations, and nurses. Nurse educators prepare a workable education program to impact relevant knowledge and skills to the nurses. These educators will also develop methods to integrate the new technology with existing technologies to save on costs and the training requirements.

Nurse educators will also play a significant role in change management by providing evidence and convincing nurses and the organization of the importance of implementing the change (Verkyul et al., 2020). Nurse educators will also monitor nurses using the program, offer assistance to those in need of help, and also evaluate the nurses. They will also participate in progressive development through continuing evaluation to improve experiences and produce better patient outcomes. Thus, nurse educators are essential professionals in implementing the technology changes.

Proposed Changes in the Design of Current or Future Nursing Education Programs

Current continuing professional education programs are suited for classroom and virtual lessons. The teaching and learning method most commonly used is the lecture method. Virtual simulations require robust preparation of the learning exercises akin to video games. Foronda et al. (2020) state that the primary involvement of educators is in preparing the programs because the other duty is less demanding, such as monitoring performance and handling student assignments.

The proposed changes will thus affect teaching methods and will almost eliminate lecture methods. Simulations also depend on student activities, and the learning activities are learner-centered. Simulations will drive learning the much-desired learner-centered education (Foronda et al., 2020). The proposed changes also engage students and ensure their enthusiastic participation, hence better performance than other learning methods prone to distractions.

Conclusion

Virtual simulations are viable technologies that have had success in nursing students’ education. Simulations are learner-centered technologies developed to meet learner needs. These technologies promote uniformity of nurses’ skills and knowledge. The technology will also help create uniform curriculums that will help improve patient care delivery in the various departments and thus promoting the organization’s strategic mission, vision, values, and goals. Virtual simulations will significantly change future educational programs, but there is a need for a backup plan if the new technologies fail. Nurse educators are integral professionals in implementing the technology changes.