Effects of Innovations and Challenges in Nursing Education on Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan

Gbonjubola Oludayo Owolabi; Adekunle Abiodun Oni; Samuel Olukayode Awotona

Effects of Innovations and Challenges in Nursing Education on Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan

Gbonjubola Oludayo Owolabi^*, Adekunle Abiodun Oni, Samuel Olukayode Awotona

Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan, Nigeria

^*Corresponding author: Gbonjubola Oludayo Owolabi, Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan, Nigeria. Email: gbonjubolaowolabio@gmail.com

Received Date: 27 December, 2018; Accepted Date: 21 January, 2019; Published Date: 25 January, 2019

Citation: Owolabi GO, Oni AA, Awotona SO (2019) Effects of Innovations and Challenges in Nursing Education on Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan. Int J Nurs Res Health Care: IJNHR-166. DOI: 10.29011/ IJNHR-166. 100066

The current Nursing Education reform in Nigeria is at the peak of its implementation, Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan, Nigeria equally transit (not in principle) from traditional school based to a tertiary institution ND, HND but ultimately targeting degree awarding. Currently, as potential diploma awarding institution, the College utilizes a broad-based curriculum for training her students. The College runs 3 years’ programme of intensive training. Though, there are shortage of staff in the area of teaching, the academic board of the College developed a concept named OYSCONME Learning Intervention Model (LIM) to help the students in organizing their studies as well as evaluating their knowledge in various subjects offered in the College.

Aim: The concept model is an educational tool that aims to assist the academic performance of the students. However, the concept faces challenges both internally and externally at initial -stage but later embraced by all.

Method: Having this innovation as a drive to overcome the perceived shortfalls, the college used fifty (50) students taking from all level and from the two departments to do a test run of the model for two years.

Result: Their performances were closely monitored after being exposed to all variables in the Learning Intervention Model and this yielded 98% success rate in the qualifying examination for the licensure examination.

Conclusion: It was observed from the test that with the right exposure to LIM innovation, our student began to have a better learning satisfaction and better academic performances.

2. Introduction

Innovation cut across many fields of human endeavour with Nursing Education not different in that it is always subject to innovative idea. It is also one of the competitive professions that many are willing to take up by all possible means. Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to nursing students by experienced nurses and other medical professionals who have qualified or experienced for educational tasks. Teaching in the kind of profession such as nursing needed to be very dynamic in nature to sustain the interest of practitioners and aspiring professionals. Traditional teaching and learning environment are regarded as “boring” by the millennial generation (students) since they do not address the unique learning needs of this generation. Learning to this generation that are exposed to diverse information flow from different technological platform needed to be very vibrant and stimulating.

With all of these there arose a lot of challenges in making nursing education more attractive and relevant to the new generation of students who are willing to take up nursing as a profession. In a country that can be said to be faced with myriad of problems such as in Nigeria, it now becomes an important issue that a training institutions like Nursing needed to address and come up with an innovation that will sustained the interest of the students in learning and keeping the College on its reputation as one of the foremost training institution in the country. The challenges that are faced by College of Nursing especially the Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan are numerous but mentioning some that are germane to the Nursing profession is not limited but included: Shortage of academic staff, Poor attitude of student to academic programme, Paucity of fund, Poor technological adoption and Incessant power outage.

Nursing Innovation is a fundamental source of progress for health care system around the world. Nurses work in all settings with healthy persons, all types of patients, families, communities, health care personnel and personnel in other sectors [1]. Innovation is the process of developing new approaches, technologies and ways of working. It can apply to tools and technologies and processes, or to the way an organization or an individual behaves, works or acts [2]. Innovation is described as “to renew the science and technology for the society to benefit from them, to invent, and to make difference [3,4]. Education according to Rodriguez, et al. [5] involves creating possibilities for the production and construction of knowledge, not only in integrating learning content, but also educating students in ethics. Thus, the teacher formulates the teaching-learning process from a perspective of partnership and complementarity with the student. In this context, we can perceive changes in the training of nursing professionals associated with a broad overview of innovations that are mostly intellectual capital, based on the value of creative and critical knowledge and mediated by technological tools that translate into advances and challenges for nursing education [5].

From the above point of view and the need of the College to align itself with the paradigm shift in nursing education and nursing profession as a whole, therefore there is need to apply technological innovation to teaching and learning to keep the students stimulated and interested in learning. In recent years, nursing programs have revised curricula and teaching/learning strategies to reflect the incorporation of personal learning styles [6]. An argument can be made for incorporating assessments of students' learning styles into graduate entry pre-licensure nursing programs as well. In addition, evidence regarding personal learning styles is now appearing in acute care setting professional in-service training programs [7], with the goal of specifically targeting the learning needs and preferences of practicing nurses. Nursing educators should consider incorporating these assessments into graduate entry pre-licensure education to promote balanced content and learning activities. Lopez Paula Ana [8] said that technologies and their use have made big changes in education, since is changing its paradigms, from a closed model, and teacher-centred classroom to a model more open and student-centred, where the teacher moves from one holder of knowledge for a learning mentor, able to manage diverse discourses and performs as well as stimulate the intellectual capacities of students in the treatment of information and include online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models.

3. The Model (Figure 1)

4. Some Details of the Processes

· The LIM is a student centered approach. The input includes: Active Learning, Self -study, Student allocator, Course Coordinator and Feedback

· The library also plays its part through services like online request, follow up services etc.

· The counsellor also had sessions with the identified students.

· The student mentoring process also help in expanding students learning. (Allocator/Allocatee interaction)

· The college gets feedback from students through tests, examinations, and students interactions with the faculty.

5. Methodology

The College designed an in-house Learning Intervention Model and used fifty (50) students were randomly selected from all level and from the Nursing department to do a pilot programme which runs from 2011 and 2012. These students were exposed to all the variables in the Learning Intervention Model (LIM) which are interactions with the College Library, tutors and Counselling unit and were subjected to the school designed examination.

College Library created an interactive website where both students and tutors can make e-request of learning resources (Figure 2).

6. Observations and Conclusion

From (Tables 1.1a-1.1c), inference can be drawn that;

· The results of students from 2011 and 2012 Basic sets that were exposed to LIM performed better than students of 2009 and 2010 students.

· The students who were not exposed to the model preformed relatively lower than students that were exposed to the variables in the model.

· The innovation (Learning Intervention Model) had a positive effect on the student.

· Results of the students after the innovation was adopted for the whole school and it show an appreciable increase in performances.

· Students are ready to imbibe new innovations that stimulate their interest and open their knowledge base.

Recommendations

The following were the recommendations arrived at from the study:

· The place of peer mentoring in improving student’s performance cannot be over emphasized therefore, stakeholders should consider peer mentoring.

· Establishment of a counselling unit in each school is recommended as this goes a long way in enhancing students’ performance and improving overall Health of the students.

· The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, which is the regulatory body could consider adopting this model in Nursing Institutions.

7. Acknowledgement

The research team will like to acknowledge the Executive Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Senator Abiola Ajimobi for the leverage given to conduct the research and likewise the unflinching support of the Chairman of the Governing Board of the College,

Dr. Azeez Popoola Adeduntan, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health,

Dr. Olayemisi Iyiola.

Figure 1: showing Oysconme Learning Intervention Model.

Figure 2: showing the College Library website.

Figure 3: Showing the counselling unit sessions with students.

Figure 4: Showing faculty members interacting with the students.

Comparison of Average Scores for Basic Nursing students
S/N	2009	2010	2011	2012
1	48.7	49.7	55.7	57.5
2	52.9	53.4	58.3	60.9
3	52.7	58.3	58.5	58.7
4	53.5	56.2	54.7	55
5	53.3	49.7	57.4	60
6	50.8	48.1	57.9	57.5
7	53.3	54.1	59.5	57.7
8	52.8	50.9	55.5	57.7
9	45.4	50.6	58.1	55
10	52.2	52.4	56.5	66.8
11	53.5	49.5	59.2	60.3
12	51.5	52.1	58.1	62
13	51.7	52.4	54.9	52.1
14	53.3	49.3	54.6	63.5
15	50.5	53.8	57	50.3

Table 1.1a: showing Comparison of Average Scores between 2009- 2012.

S/N	2009	2010	2011	2012
16	52.5	55.2	54.8	64.2
17	55.5	54.6	56.7	58.4
18	54.3	48.7	55.9	51.3
19	53.9	52.9	57.8	57.3
20	47.8	52.9	59.9	59.8
21	49.7	59.7	58.2	59.2
22	51.7	56.7	60.5	60.8
23	56.6	52.4	59.9	63.6
24	50.9	53.3	60.4	58.7
25	49.7	52.8	57.5	57.8
26	48.1	45.4	51.7	72
27	52.5	52.2	54.2	56.8
28	50.9	53.5	50.6	55.6
29	50.6	51.5	54.1	64.2
30	49.2	52.8	55.1	61.1
31	49.5	57.1	55	59
32	52.1	52.1	55.9	61.1
33	52.4	52.5	53.3	60.2
34	49.3	57.1	56	60.6
35	50.4	54.3	56.5	58.9
36	55.2	53.9	59.2	56.9
37	50.1	53.6	58.1	60.2
38	49.4	53	54.9	62.8
39	53.7	55.4	53.4	59.7
40	49.4	55.4	50.2	58.8
41	52.2	56.4	53.3	51.5
42	53.4	54.7	55	63.3
43	52	53	53.1	57.1
44	48.7	48.7	59.4	55.5
45	51	52.7	55.1	59.6

Table 1.1b: Showing Comparison of Average Scores between 2009- 2012.

S/N	2009	2010	2011	2012
46	56.2	59.5	55.1	59.9
47	52.5	52.5	58.4	61.3
48	48.9	48.9	55.7	57.9
49	47.7	48.5	48.1
50	48.7	49.5	52.1
Aggregate average	4581.5	4653.5	4811.7	4851.6
Mean average	89.8	91.2	94.3	99

Table 1. 1c: Showing Comparison of Average Scores between 2009- 2012.

Effects of Innovations and Challenges in Nursing Education on Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan

International Journal of Nursing and Health Care Research