ANPD staff recently interviewed the hosts for its November 9 ANPD/Lippincott Live Webinar: Using Interactive Multimedia Technology to Provide End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Conference. We sat down with Jennifer Gentry, DNP, ANP-BC, GNP, ACHPN, FPCN, Cindy Bohlin, MSN, RN, PCCN and Dorothy Filippi, MSN, RN, CCRN-K to discuss pertinent questions related to the upcoming webinar.
Q: What steps led to the transformation of a conference into a course?
Jennifer: Covid changed everything for a lot of us in healthcare.
Cindy: All classrooms were closed. Nurses needed the information more than ever, so we had to strategize on how to distribute everything in a nontraditional way.
Dorothy: The information was needed for frontline staff facing Covid due to the volume of patients who were struggling and suffering. The tremendous increase was a burning issue – to get the information in front of everyone, but in a way they could attend.
Q: What were the interactive elements of the course, and how did they amplify the material taught?
Dorothy: The material was broken down into eight modules that were placed into an online learning platform. Users could access them at any time and learn at their own pace. There were short videos, lectures, readings, quizzes, and an online forum – the interactive discussion forums were developed by Jennifer to promote deep, rich and creative thinking that led to deep emotion.
Cindy: During the final 4-hour Zoom portion of the course, use of breakout rooms was a popular and well-liked tool that facilitated the material very well.
Jennifer: One of the unique challenges of providing this content was the need for people to tell their stories. People needed to be able to live in the moment and we had to take advantage of that. We provided that opportunity for them. It was amazing – there were many amazing stories told and colleagues rallied around and were supportive of those who shared their stories.
Dorothy: We were afraid they weren’t going to be comfortable sharing these personal stories, but the anonymity helped.
Cindy: Yes, people may have not been willing or able to emotionally share these stories in person, but through this medium they were allowed to and it was really beautiful.
Jennifer: The content the course discussed can trigger strong emotions, or trigger reminders of past experiences – we were careful to embed resources into the course available to participants who may need help dealing with the subject matter. Faculty also monitored the forums in case there was the need to reach out.
Dorothy: This offering was unique in the nursing professional development sphere and we really expanded our skills.
What were the challenges of developing the interactive portion?
Dorothy: Time.
Jennifer: Figuring out some of the technical elements of the LMS without a designated educational technology support person. An additional challenge was addressing learning needs of multiple audiences at the same time given the diversity of professional backgrounds of those who take the course?
Dorothy: It was neat to see the different perspectives from the areas that people came from.
Jennifer: For instance, a special case study involving children allowed the pediatrics people to jump in and share specifics and resources and that was really neat.
Cindy: Just how do we break up a two-day conference into a course so participants aren’t overwhelmed? So they can focus on the material and get a quality experience out of the course? What was the magic number of credit hours? Which modules deserved to be live?
Is there a growing interest in end-of-life care?
Dorothy: The ANCC now recognize hospice/palliative care and supportive care as part of the core competencies that are essential for undergraduate nursing education.
Jennifer: Every nursing student learns about OB, even though only a small population of the earth gives birth, yet everyone is going to die. Regulatory and other certification bodies are reflecting the importance of this material in requirements.
Did a participant need to meet a certain threshold of tech know-how, or was the course designed to meet everyone where they’re at?
Dorothy: We were the ones who needed the know-how! The complexity was on us as we built the course out. For the participants, it was all there in front of them. The preparation of it was harder on their end. Participants were given a trajectory in order to stay on task.
Cindy: If you think about technology, at the minimum all of our participants at least had to be able to email. Participants were also shown the material to be covered so they could see what they were getting into. Computer lab space as also made available as needed. Baseline requirements: opening an email, downloading an attachment, and browsing a website.
What would you hope participants walk away with at the end of the course?
Dorothy: Apply the knowledge gained at the bedside. Care, understanding, and know-how – putting it all together for this specific situation to be able to advocate for their patient and their needs.
Cindy: The ELNEC curriculum has set objectives, and we hoped that we hit all those objectives and expanded on them.
Jennifer: Of course we want good evaluations, but to me the best outcome is when a nurse stops me in the hospital and says, “Hey, I took this course, and it really helped me with this patient.” That’s the ultimate application.
How can the technology used here be applied to other courses or hybrid learning experiences?
Cindy: This can be applied to any course, using thoughtful planning for a live session if the learning require a hands-on component.
Are there any special considerations when teaching end-of-life care?
Dorothy: The emotional aspect. Patients are remembered, especially those working with certain patient populations such as oncology. Letting these emotions out during this course was cathartic for these participants.
Cindy: Making sure we provide resources and pay attention in case anyone needed someone to reach out to them. We also had to teach no-bias to participants. We needed to communicate that they cannot judge their patients or their situation.
Dorothy: It is the patients’ story and they are living it. We are there to support them.
Overall, are there any strategies you would like to share to avoid challenges (e.g., attendance over the course of the 6-week asynchronous learning and synchronous interactive webinar)?
Dorothy: Every time we taught the class we read the evaluations together and made changes using [plan-do-check-act] PDCA methodology to make modifications to the class as needed. If there was a continual request for a modification then we would make it. Making the time commitment clear ahead of time was important.
Cindy: Outside of participation, including planning a course like this, we prepared for about six months ahead of the first session. Technology isn’t always friendly, teamwork was important, and we did dress rehearsals for some portions. We also had debriefs among the team and discussed what did and didn’t go well. We had to work backwards to plan the calendar, and also reached out to participants who were falling behind.
If you missed the live webinar, be sure to register for the recording.