More specifically to nursing, distance education has created many opportunities if administered in a way that is most effective for students. This can also help with the nursing shortage by allowing some students the convenience of completing a lot of their coursework at home (Murphy, et. al, 2011). Distance education gives colleges and universities a cost effective option for helping students prepare for a nursing career, which, from a larger perspective, can help more people lead healthier, longer lives by educating more nurses to enter into the healthcare field (Abrams, 2011).
However, with online education, in this case with nursing education, there are some challenges. One of them being quality of instruction. Since nurses are healthcare professionals, it is imperative that their instruction and training is facilitated by experienced professionals, and coursework must include real world experiences that they can apply in their own daily practices. This may be hard to achieve in a distance education environment due to several reasons (Abrams, 2011). For a general idea on a distance education course, please see the video below.
With these challenges, nursing education administrators must employ methods to help nursing students succeed at the highest levels possible. They must encourage innovative thinking that can lead both instructors and students to ideas that can continue to improve the quality of instruction. They must also be very informative to future applicants and prove that their program is just as successful as face to face instruction (Brown, et.al., 2012) In order to do this, they must practice nursing professional standards, and illustrate their importance.
As a member of an organization to meet these challenges, I would make sure that all instructors and staff are highly qualified. They must be very knowledgeable in their area of expertise so that they can support future nurses in every aspect of their educational journey. In addition, by encouraging creativity and innovation with intensive trainings, they can design coursework that will lead nurses to success. This can be done with not only collaborations and engaging activities, but also simulations and interactive technology. Software for various programs must meet current standards to ensure that students are receiving the best training possible. This means that there must also be a financial team that focuses on grants and proposals to attempt to obtain resources with the most cost effective method possible.
With the effort of a team of professionals whose priority is the education of students, distance education can be very successful for nursing students. Although there are challenges, they can be overcome. The healthcare industry is one full of changes and new developments. Distance education programs must support that notion in order to be effective.
References
Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Bures, E. M., Borokhovski, E., & Tamim, R. M. (2011). Interaction in distance education and online learning: Using evidence and theory to improve practice. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 23(2-3), 82-103.
Murphy, S., Barker, K., Johnson, J., & Stuart, S. (2011). Major Issues Facing Online Education: Challenges and Change.
Suarez-Brown, T. L., Grice, H., Turner, T., & Hankins, J. (2012). THE CHALLENGES OF DELIVERING QUALITY ONLINE AND DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSES. Review of Business Research, 12(5).
