‘De student die online heeft geoefend is in de les veel vaardiger’
ROC Midden Nederland, together with NCOI and UtrechtZorg, is launching the Virtual Learning Lab app in which students can practice nursing skills regardless of place and time. The aim of the app is to reduce the workload in the workplace, where the guidance capacity is high due to staff shortages. How the app is used in education, Nelleke Rietveld, Nursing teacher at the Tailor-made Training learning route, where lateral entrants and adults are trained in a modular way to become Caregivers, explains. ‘The students who love gaming find practicing the skills online super fun! They are enthusiastic users. Others think it is a bit too limited,’ says Nelleke.
Tips and tricks
‘A good tip is to practice the skills on your laptop. On the phone, the screen is a bit small and you are more easily distracted. I see online practice as a good preparation for the skills lesson. If you have practiced skills in the app, from basic to complex, you will be better in class and pick up the actions faster. This way we can quickly go deeper into the actions with tips and tricks and you don’t have to think separately about the protocol that the student has already practiced online,’ says Nelleke.
Online Skills Lab
‘Complex skills cannot always be practiced in practice, because they simply do not always occur. If you can practice this online, it has added value. The student who has practiced the complex skill online is more skilled in the action in class and can focus on the details, such as working sterile when inserting a bladder catheter or instructing the client during the insertion of the gastric tube,’ says Nelleke. ‘You can see the app as an online Skills Lab where you practice skills regardless of place and time. It is an addition to the physical Skills Lab, where students practice skills under the guidance of instructors.’
Protocol
‘The great thing I see about the students who practice in the app is that they have mastered the protocol so well: they recognize the steps well and that is necessary in a time when there is not always attention for the protocol. Now you make sure that that gets between the ears through gaming,’ says Nelleke. The app works adaptively: teachers can follow how students develop in skills at the back end. They can then respond to that later in the lesson.’
Next step?
NCOI, UtrechtZorg and ROC Midden Nederland will soon meet to take a look behind the scenes and to brainstorm how the organizations will use the app in education.
Learn more
Would you like more information about the Virtual Learning Lab? Please contact i.sluimers@rocmn.nl.
Source: Roc Midden Nederland. (2022, November 18). ‘The student who practices online is much more skilled in class’. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://gezondheidszorg.rocmn.nl/nieuws/de-student-die-online-heeft-geoefend-de-les-veel-vaardiger
