2020 has been a challenging year as educators and students have worked together to adapt to the necessary changes due to COVID-19. Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, who hosts a variety of limited-residency programs, has had to adapt to travel restrictions and cancellations of anticipated onsite campus visits.
Despite travel and onsites being cancelled, some programs decided that rather than cancel their onsite week entirely and lose the impact of those limited campus visits. The Nursing program adapted and held their program’s first virtual “onsite” week.
Stephanie Richardson, PhD, RN, chair of the Nursing Department, explained that the nursing department administration and staff worked hard to ensure Doctor of Nursing Practice – Family Nurse Practitioner (DNP/FNP) students didn’t lose that valuable onsite opportunity.
“The Nursing Department realized early on that travel to the traditional onsite week was not going to be safe or warranted, requiring alternate arrangements to meet the needs of students. Directors of Clinical Education Kristen Cox, DNP, ACNP-BC; Kristina Davis, ENP-C, FNP-C, AGACNP-BC; and Megan O’Neil, DNP, APRN, FNP, OCN; and Administrative Assistant, Melissa Capps, embraced the challenge of transitioning the onsite week to a virtual week for the DNP/FNP program,” said Richardson.
“It wasn’t easy work to accommodate everything to an online platform”, explained Richardson. “Under ordinary circumstances this onsite week requires a considerable amount of planning, preparation, and time to achieve success. This team seamlessly converted this vital learning process to a virtual platform so students could still acquire skills acquisition, and present scholarly projects.”
The program faculty and staff had to arrange virtual standardized patients and skills labs to ensure students gained the required skills and knowledge. Capps explained, “We had to evaluate each activity and lab that normally occurred in the summer semester to determine whether it could feasibly still work in a virtual format, and come up with alternatives for each activity in case we couldn’t make it work. The faculty evaluated each activity, the content students would be learning in their clinical course at the time, and even gaps in their learning that they could try to create activities for if necessary.”
The program experienced challenges in moving the week’s instruction and activities to an online platform, but they worked hard to find solutions to those challenges. For example, the program hosts an activity called “Hot Seats,” which is a small group rotation activity led by multiple faculty where the class is broken into groups to discuss a case study, then the group rotates to the next case study. Capps explained that activity is important because it “tests students’ diagnosing abilities without preparation beforehand, and tests their knowledge without feeling like a quiz or formal assessment…It increases the discussion and collaboration, and they get to learn from each other.”
The faculty had to figure out how to hold separate groups during the same virtual classroom space. Capps said the faculty worked hard to test using virtual conference breakout rooms so they could use it for the Hot Seats activity.
“In order to do a virtual week of lab activities and group work, we had to embrace the technology we had access to already and make it work for us…That activity in particular went about as smoothly as we could have hoped, and the students still got the similar experience as if they were on campus,” said Capps.
While the virtual onsite week couldn’t replace physically coming to campus and the hands-on skills labs with faculty, the faculty and staff worked hard to provide the best experience for students and learn from feedback to improve future onsite weeks.
Capps said that despite the complaints of being stuck looking at a computer screen all day, “everyone was generally patient with the situation and with each other and appreciated how much content and practice they could still do as a cohort, as small groups, and individually, even though it was all through Zoom. The students and faculty were all particularly grateful that they didn’t have to travel or worry about getting sick, exposing family members and patients, and missing more work,” said Capps.
“When it is safe and appropriate to do so, our students will return to campus for their Onsite Week instruction, but at least they don’t have to put their learning on hold until that is possible again,” said Capps.
The Nursing Department is now preparing for the fall semester virtual “onsite” week, where they’ll be hosting three cohorts, rather than just one. But with their countless hours of preparation for summer and their continued preparation for fall, the program is well equipped to help students continue in their academic pursuits.
