Running Head: GROWING TREND IN ONLINE EDUCATION 1

Jeffrey Vales

Trends in Nursing

Professor Gilles
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Information Communication Technology (ICT) has transformed traditional nursing

education. In this type of technology, various means of technology are used for sending and

receiving information. Previously, computers were only seen as a way to receive and send

information from a distant location. In this type of communication exchange, the Internet was the

main source working between computers while also carrying out the process of communication

between the users. However, with newer innovations and changes in the field of ICT, the role of

computers started to decline and more focus was given to different devices, which were more

capable of producing communication between more than two individuals. For example, in the

clinical field it was noted that there should be an electronic source of connection between patient,

doctor, nurse and any other medical staff who was directly or indirectly connected with the

health of the patient. As a result of that desire, the recent advancement in the shape of online

education has not only facilitated the electronic communication between nursing students and

teachers/hospitals but also increased the opportunity for studying and learning through use of the

Internet. Overall, this transformation has increased opportunities for online nursing learning and

also enabled students to adjust their study schedule to fit their convenience.

In the following parts of this paper, first description about online education has been

provided. Moreover, this part also elaborates on the general significance of online education.

Subsequently, Significance of online education for nursing students has also been provided. After

that part, merits of online education has been included in which accessibility and affordability

features have been mainly emphasized and elaborated as well. It is followed by demerits of

online education part in which education quality and lack of concentration have been detailed.

Before the conclusion part, the significance of magnet status for hospitals and the nursing

students has been included.

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Online education is growing across the world (Shelton and Saltsman, 2005.p.146). Online

education is defined as an education mechanism in which information communication

technology is used for the purpose of studying different subjects. There are three different users

or sources in the online education system: online education provider, medium and online

education receivers (students). In addition, online education primarily relies on the external

factors such as technology and societal requirements (Regina and Mitchell, 2010. p. 2). The

online education providers are the academic institutions who provide education about the related

subjects and all the relevant material is available online. For uploading the material online, the

online education provider uses different mediums for sending the academic material. For

example, recorded lecturers, virtual classrooms and virtual online sessions about questions and

answers are some of the sources used for sending the required material to the students. In other

words, nothing has substantially changed in teaching process except for the source (the Internet).

It is the role of the Internet that has considerably changed the entire learning environment and

has considerably made physical boundaries irrelevant because technology has provided those

devices and methods through which transformation of data and academic material from one

place to another making it easier than ever before.

Online education has substantial importance especially for nursing students. Nursing is a

very challenging profession when compared with other professions. In this field, proper and full

time care for patients is provided in which full concentration and commitment is given to the

professions requirements. In a few words, it can be said that the field of nursing looks after

human life when it requires medical attention and proper health care facility. There are no few

chances of errors in this field. Therefore nurses must remain highly careful while preforming

their professional duties. Sometimes, nurses do not avoid sacrificing their personal and social
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lives for satisfying the objectives of the field of nursing. Under this situation, it is very

challenging to both maintain their nursing education while providing nursing services to health

care facilities.

However, the opportunity of online education has considerably helped nursing students to

maintain both nursing services and nursing education as well. If they succeed and maintain both

tasks professionally and properly, they become in a position to provide quality health services

because after receiving higher nursing degree through online education they will have higher

health care skills, expertise sufficient enough to provide professional health services.

Hospital management should encourage and support the online education for nursing

students because it will be in favor of both nursing students and hospital management as well.

Online education is easily accessible through the use of the Internet. In the conventional

learning method, students are required to appear physically at an academic institution with a

specified period of time. For some students, the distance of the academic institution is so far

away that they consume 2 or more hours in travel before reaching the academic institution. The

reason for including 2-hour travel is that the issues such as traffic jams, signals and other travel

problems take considerable time. Additionally, it has also been seen that the business of class

starts an exact time even if some students have not arrived on time, the teacher does not wait for

it and start teaching.

When such factors are taken into account especially for the nursing students, it is almost

impossible for them to cope up with the nursing education requirements and nursing services. As

a result, the provision of online education for the nursing student is ideal due to its nature and

accessibility as well.
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Globally, cost of education is substantially rising. This problem discourages many

nursing students for pursuing higher degree in their field of choice. And this discouragement

further decreases their chances of career growth in their field and this impact brings a number of

ramifications for the nursing students. However, thanks to the online education, the cost of

education has somewhat affordable for many students because the institutions, which provide the

online education, do not incur higher amount of cost, which is paid to teachers. Simply, the

online education providers record the lectures and they upload them to the relevant portal and the

registered online students are given user name and password to access the uploaded material and

obtain understanding about subject-related information.

Online education is not a perfect learning recipe. For example, if a student does not

understand a particular jargon or a topic in the uploaded lecture and the related lecturer is also

not appropriately addressing the question, in that case, the use of online education does not

satisfy the requirements of learning through online sources. Additionally, it has been seen that

some academic subjects are compatible with the online education system. For example, finance

and business subjects are considered to be easier and the mode of online system is capable to

obtain its objectives. However, some subjects are highly complex in which deep and close

supervision and support is required and without such assistance, students find it hard to obtain

the required results. For example, subjects pertaining to space technology, robotics and

informatics are considerably challenging. Thereby, the source of online education may not be

appropriate to satisfy the related academic objectives.

Lack of concentration is another demerit. It has been observed that physical appearance

in class room provides an opportunity to feel the sense of active participation in the class room
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and this sense increases more learning chances because face to face interaction and cross

questioning in the class-based environment are some of those factors that not only increase the

subject related understanding but also provide an opportunity to consume minimum time for

learning or grasping any topic. Moreover, if a student finds it hard to understand topic through

the use of online education, there would be chances that the student may not be able to perform

better in examinations and the objective of learning may be compromised.

. Magnet status represents gold standard for nursing excellence (UC Davis Medical

Centre, 2014). There are a number of benchmarks required before this status and award is given

to hospitals. Among other factors, qualifications of practicing nurses and their professional

experience in the related specializations are some of those factors that are also considered before

awarding this status to any health care facility in the United States of America. If a particular

hospital has specific number of highly qualified nurses, the hospital is more likely to receive this

status.

In other words, hospitals are very keen to hire those nurses who are well qualified and

well experienced in their related specialization as they are fully aware of the fact that the services

of qualified nurses not only put positive effect on the health care service quality but it also

increase a positive perception among patients. Under such circumstances when hospitals prefer

to gain the magnet status, the semi-qualified or under-qualified practicing nurses will be more

interested to increase their qualification level. For this purpose, the source of online education for

the current and potential nursing students will be a way forward for making their dreams come

true which will not only benefit to their longer and sustainable nursing career but it will also

enable hospitals to apply for the magnet status

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Online education provides an opportunity to the nursing students. In the traditional

learning environment, it is very difficult for the nurses to maintain balance between the nursing

services and nursing education as well. However, thanks to the online education, which is easily

accessible and affordable as well for the nursing students, the balance between both activities has

become possible. In the online education, the students do not require attending physically but

they will be provided uploaded lecturers and other academic notes, which they can use to

understand the particular subject-related topics. However, education quality and lack of

concentration are two demerits, which raise questions about the validity and usefulness of the

online education.

The magnet status encourages hospitals to hire well-qualified nurses. Through hiring the

qualified nurses, the hospitals meet one of the many fundamental requirements for obtaining this

status. In other words, the nursing students will have the opportunity to continue studying while

performing their nursing services because it is also beneficial to hospitals.

References
Mitchell, R.L.G. (ed.) (2010). Online Education: New Directions for Community Colleges,

Number 150. New Jersey, NJ: Wiley.

Shelton, K., & Saltsman, G. (2005). An Administrators Guide to Online Education. United

States: Information Age Publication.

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UC Davis Medical Centre, (2014). Nursing. Retrieved:

https://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/nurse/magnet/faq.html