Open AccessInnovative approaches to teaching vascular access to nursing students in the COVID-19 era
Author(s) -
Caroline Marchionni,
Madolyn Connolly,
Mélanie Gauthier,
Mélanie LavoieTremblay
Publication year - 2021
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2563-7193
DOI - 10.5737/cvaa-151614
Subject(s) - curriculum , creativity , competence (human resources) , experiential learning , vascular access , medical education , nurse education , nursing , medicine , covid-19 , flexibility (engineering) , psychology , pedagogy , hemodialysis , social psychology , statistics , surgery , disease , mathematics , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Purpose: For the student nurse, peripheral venous cannulation is one of the most stressful skills to be learned. Although some healthcare employers/establishments offer courses on vascular access and infusion nursing as part of their onboarding programs, ultimately educational institutions should share the responsibility to ensure that graduating nurses can provide safe infusion therapies. Methods: An innovative vascular access and infusion nursing (VAIN) curriculum was created and mapped onto the entry-to-practice undergraduate nursing program at McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Canada. This presented an opportunity to implement new teaching approaches. Results: Students experienced multiple new teaching approaches including multimedia and experiential learning and live simulation to ensure acquisition of knowledge and psychomotor skills. The teaching approaches had to be rapidly modified with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: The VAIN curriculum emphasizes simulation and directed practice, seeking to increase competence, confidence, and knowledge. The pandemic underscored the need for flexibility and creativity in content delivery.