DEVELOPING DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR NURSING AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE RESULTS OF AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

There is limited European literature on nursing and sustainability; nursing students are poorly prepared on the connections between resources, climate change, sustainability, and health, so they must acquire knowledge and develop skills and competences in this field. The use of digital technologies and teaching via E-learning has grown, and has been widely adopted as a learning method for nursing. Objectives: The aim of the current study was to test and evaluate digital educational materials on environmental sustainability and health, in the context of university nursing education in different European countries. Design: An observational cross-sectional design. Participants: 299 Nursing Degree students: 161 students from University of Jaen, 106 from University of Plymouth and 32 from University of Esslingen. Methodology: It was conducted a piloting and validation process. The materials were designed and adapted to the NurSusTOOLKIT Sustainability Literacy and Competency framework. Evaluation was developed by students using the Spanish Standard for the assessment of Digital Educational Material Quality at University level questionnaire modified. All students provided informed consent prior to taking part in the learning and evaluation. Results: The overall score about the quality of materials given by the students were 7.98 ± 1.28. The Ability to generate learning was scored higher among students (mean difference: 0.84; 0.22-1.47; p = 0.008). In the overall assessment by students, statistically significant differences were found between the three universities (Welch: 11.69, p <0.001). Conclusions: Students considered the materials to be very good quality, especially regarding the quality of contents, format, and design. It is necessary to continue this approach to evaluate the effectiveness of the digital educational materials in promoting knowledge of sustainability in the nursing learning process.