Building a values-based community of practice in Nursing Sciences during the Covid-19 pandemic

Delivering a rigorous Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) accredited academic and professional curriculum is complex; the government call for final year student nurses to fast-track their degree completion and enter clinical practice six months early as a response to the pandemic added a further challenging dimension. Distinctive features of teaching and learning in this department of Nursing Science are a curriculum built on the theory of humanisation (Todres, Galvin and Holloway, 2009) and valuesbased teaching and learning (Shulman, 2005; Crookes, Else and Lewis, 2020), informed by Wenger’s (1999) communities of practice. This underpinning philosophy informed the support mechanisms introduced to support this complex scenario of online study and rapid pandemic-related deployment into clinical practice.


The challenge
Delivering a rigorous Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) accredited academic and professional curriculum is complex; the government call for final year student nurses to fast-track their degree completion and enter clinical practice six months early as a response to the pandemic added a further challenging dimension. Distinctive features of teaching and learning in this department of Nursing Science are a curriculum built on the theory of humanisation (Todres, Galvin and Holloway, 2009) and values-based teaching and learning (Shulman, 2005;Crookes, Else and Lewis, 2020), informed by Wenger's (1999) communities of practice. This underpinning philosophy informed the support mechanisms introduced to support this complex scenario of online study and rapid pandemic-related deployment into clinical practice.
As traditional nurse education has involved high levels of face-to-face content both on campus and in clinical settings (Horsfall, Cleary and Hunt, 2012), few staff had experience or expertise in delivering online learning. However there was an in-house theoretical base to draw upon in developing theories of blended learning (Hutchings, Quinney and Galvin, 2014;Hutchings and Quinney, 2015). A rapid transition was needed to not simply move content online for our cohort of unexpectedly distanced learners, but to design interactive and engaging materials. Coupled with this, assessment practices were required to change to be in line with online teaching and learning. We drew upon the body of knowledge offered by learning development in this 'tilt to online' (Quinney et al., 2017;Nordmann et al., 2020), and this developed confidence in staff unfamiliar with this mode of delivery.

The response
The work of Biggs (1999)  Our technology/pedagogic response was underpinned by Vygotsky's (1978) conceptualisation of the Zone of Proximal Development which had informed previous developments in blended learning (Hutchings, Quinney and Galvin, 2014;Hutchings and Quiney 2015). Vygotsky's ideas support socially constructed learning, especially when mediated by technology. We were influenced by Cook (2010) (Quinney, Holley and Luce, 2019). It contained continually updated materials on well-established topics pertinent to the pandemicfor example, on moving exams onlinewith weekly blog content spotlighting sections of content. This promoted resources that were both relevant and sustainable, regardless of the adjustments required in response to the pandemic. The change in practice enabled in this way has led to longer term creative and authentic assessment strategies, rather than just being a temporary adjustment.
Encouraging staff to make creative and authentic adjustments to assessment and feedback was operationalised through a combination of live and recorded webinars, tailored to specific discipline context where requested, and expert masterclasses facilitated by our in-house expert (Quinney) with an international visiting professor (Hounsell).
The Faculty Learning Technologist highlighted the importance of rapid adaptations to institutional change for management practices and confidence building: 'The usual change barriers were removed and left us no choice but to adapt, we will be able to offer our students a wider variety and 'blend' as we move more confidently between different learning spaces in the future'. Twitter, enabling ideas to be shared, adapted and adopted more widely, whilst learning from peers in different HEIs, including as part of an assessment design sprint with JISC about innovation in assessment at a time of change (Holley 2020a) and a WonkHE blog (Holley 2020b). This local initiative thus gained momentum and informed learning beyond the department, faculty, and institution.
e. Repeat and reinforce. The success of these two examples will be reinforced by continuing to provide opportunities for staff to talk through concerns or challenges, develop further confidence, and increase expertise as we move to a blended/hybrid learning scenario.