Healthcare students’ use of an e-textbook open educational resource on vital sign measurement: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Students desire free textbooks that incorporate multimedia and interactive experiences. Although there is an increased production of e-textbooks, these resources tend to replicate hard copy books and do not take advantage of the functions that technology offers. There is also a shift to creating e-textbooks that are considered open educational resources. A team of nursing educators and a nursing student created an interactive open educational resource e-textbook in vital sign measurement that was implemented within the curriculum of post-secondary health-related programmes. The goal of this paper is to report the study findings which sought to explore healthcare students’ experiences of using this open educational resource. Three discipline-specific focus groups were conducted with a convenience sample of 29 students. Using a qualitative thematic analysis, six interconnected themes describing students’ use of this resource were identified: (a) This Generation’s Learner, (b) Vital Signs Open Educational Resource influence, (c) Accessibility, (d) Convenience, (e) Design, and (f) Visual and Other Types of Learning Styles. Participants  were positive about using the open educational resource to learn vital sign skills. Our study findings provide a foundation for e-textbook design standards that support student learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Open educational resources
• focus groups
• vital signs
• healthcare students
• higher education
• e-textbook

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Centennial College’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for funding this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Centennial College’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning [Fall 2018].

Notes on contributors

Margaret Verkuyl

Margaret Verkuyl MN, NP PHC, is a Professor (Nursing) at Centennial College and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto. She is a primary care nurse practitioner who provides care to uninsured people. Her programme of research and scholarship is in virtual simulations. These simulations have won prestigious local, national and international awards. While gaining international attention, the virtual gaming simulations are pervasive in nursing education globally. Most recently, she developed an open access Virtual Healthcare Experience with seven different virtual gaming simulations. Over the last few years, she has been involved in creating e-textbooks that are available freely. She has published over 25 research and non-research articles related to open educational resources such as e-textbooks and virtual simulation in peer-reviewed journals and has authored a book chapter on the topic of virtual simulations.

Jennifer L. Lapum

Jennifer L. Lapum PhD, RN is Professor at Ryerson University. She is a Registered Nurse with clinical background in critical care nursing. Her programme of research is focused on ensuring that ‘the 7,024th patient does not feel like the 7,024th patient’. This focus highlights her passion for issues surrounding patient-centred care, empathy, and compassion within technologically dominated environments of care. As part of her arts-based and narrative programme of research, she uses media such as poetry, visual images, installation art, dance, and music to facilitate knowledge translation and a deep understanding of illness and human experiences. She also has expertise in designing and producing open educational resources and virtual gaming simulations. She has received over 1.9 million in funding, supervised over 50 graduate students in research, and published over 75 peer-reviewed articles, 7 open educational resources, and several book chapters and virtual gaming simulations.

Oona St-Amant

Oona St-Amant, PhD, RN is an Associate Professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. Her programme of research centres around unpaid care work and ethnographic methodologies. While teaching and learning occurs at the hyphen, Dr St-Amant recognises the importance of contextualised pedagogy that illuminates values, beliefs and practices embedded in nursing education. Her teaching learning portfolio also includes creating and implementing open educational resources and virtual gaming simulations.

Jessica Bregstein

Jessica Bregstein BScN, RN graduated from the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing at Ryerson University in 2019. After graduating, Jessica was immediately sponsored by Michael Garron Hospital to pursue post-graduate studies in critical care nursing at George Brown College. Jessica currently works in the Intensive Care Unit at Michael Garron Hospital and she plans to apply for her Masters of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner. She is an active research participant and advocate for implementing nursing research in the clinical setting.

Michelle Hughes

Michelle Hughes MEd, RN is a Professor in the Ryerson, Centennial, George Brown Collaborative Nursing Degree programme at Centennial College. Her programme of research is focused on designing, developing and implementing virtual gaming simulations into nursing curriculum. Michelle has been part of various interprofessional teams creating interactive videos and branching scenarios using open access technology. Michelle’s professional portfolio also includes designing inclusive open educational resources for nursing education.