Teaching experiences of digital education during the pandemic – multicentre study

Aim. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many teachers to switch from traditional face-to-face teaching to the use of various digital platforms in a short period of time. The research aimed to find out about teachers’ experiences of digital education at nursing faculties in four countries (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden) which participated in the Erasmus+ Digital Education in Nursing project.

Material and methods. Qualitative research with semi-structured group interviews was used. A total of 28 nursing teachers participated. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed inductively, using qualitative content analysis. The interviews were analysed in accordance with the study aim by searching for codes which were grouped into subcategories and then into categories based on the similarity of the content.

Results. Three important themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: “conflicting feelings of teachers when switching to digital teaching”, “lack of digital competences”, “challenges for digital teaching in the future”.

Conclusions. Rapidly developing digital technology provides new possibilities and support for both teaching and learning. The research identified the need for further development of the digital competences of teachers, who recommended that a hybrid teaching method is the best for the education of nurses, since certain skills cannot be acquired by students solely in a digital way.