Use of digital educational technologies among nursing students and teachers: an exploratory study

Abstract

The emergence of digital educational technologies (DET) raises questions regarding the personalization of both teaching and care. DET use implies profound changes with consequences in nursing care and in nursing teaching-learning process. With the purpose of contributing to the improvement of the teaching-learning process through the use of DET, an exploratory-descriptive, cross-sectional, and observational study, with a quantitative approach (descriptive and inferential statistics), was developed. Online questionnaires were applied (n = 140 students and n = 23 teachers) after ethics committee approval. Results point to low cost and access without time/space limits as the main benefits, and decreased interaction, less physical contact, and technical difficulties as constraints. Globally, there was no difference between students and teachers in the use of DET. Still, men report more constraints than women. In this sample, the use of DET is still at an early stage. Both students and teachers are still unfamiliar with the scope and possibilities of these tools, not taking full advantage of the potential they have to offer. The impact of DET used in personalized nursing care is still yet to be understood.