Preparing nursing students for technology-driven healthcare: A workshop-based educational intervention

Background and objectives: Technology literacy is emerging as a competence to support clinical decision-making, documentation, and communication. However, while curricula for nursing students emphasize technological competencies, clinical education fails to support nursing students' understanding of technology in clinical practice. To address this gap, we developed a workshop for nursing students in clinical placement.  The objective of this study was to evaluate of a workshop-based educational intervention designed to strengthen nursing students’ technology literacy and clinical decision-making.
Methods: Design: A single group, post-intervention, descriptive design was applied to evaluate nursing students' learning outcomes. The workshop was structured in two parts. Part one focused on everyday technologies in nursing care guided by the TEKU model. Part two focused on future technologies such as AI and remote monitoring, using cases supported by The Pedagogical Reflection model or “The House” in clinical decision-making. To evaluate learning outcomes, a post-workshop questionnaire was completed.
Results: Of 112 respondents, 77% (n = 86) had previously attended teaching in technology literacy during their studies, 20% (n = 22) had not, and 4% (n = 4) were unsure. As for self-reported technology literacy post-workshop (n = 82), 62% (n = 51) reported a high or very high understanding, 37% (n = 30) reported moderate, and 1% (n = 1) reported low understanding. Furthermore, 89% (n = 97) reported improved clinical decision-making when encountering new technologies to a moderate 54% (n = 59), high 29% (n = 32), or a very high degree of 6% (n = 6), and 11% reported low (n = 10) or very low (n = 2). Open-ended responses highlighted that reflection and case-based group work were valuable in supporting critical thinking in assessing technology.
Discussion and conclusions: The results indicate that authentic and case-based learning activities are effective to support nursing students’ technology literacy and critical thinking and may address the gap between curricular requirements and clinical practice. However, a single group design might limit generalizability.  A practice-oriented workshop approach is effective to strengthen nursing students’ technology literacy and support clinical decisions.