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Abstract
Aim To explore what first-year nursing students believe to be the preferred characteristics of common foundation programme biomedical science lecturers, and to investigate whether students prefer active or passive learning.
Method Survey and interview methodologies were used to explore the attitudes of a cohort of first-year nursing students at Queen's University Belfast. Questionnaires were distributed among 300 students. Individuals were asked to select five of a list of 14 criteria that they believed characterised the qualities of an effective lecturer. Informal interviews were carried out with five participants who were randomly selected from the sample to investigate which teaching methods were most beneficial in assisting their learning.
Results Nursing students favoured didactic teaching and found interactivity in lectures intimidating. Students preferred to learn biomedical science passively and depended heavily on their instructors.
Conclusion In response to the survey, the authors propose a set of recommendations to enhance the learning process in large classes. This guidance includes giving clear objectives and requirements to students, encouraging active participation, and sustaining student interest through the use of improved teaching aids and innovative techniques.
Keywords
Biomedical science, common foundation programme, education, nursing students, teaching
These keywords are based on subject headings from the British Nursing Index. This article has been subject to double-blind review. For author and research article guidelines visit the Nursing Standard home page at nursingstandard.rcnpublishing.co.uk. For related articles visit our online archive and search using the keywords.
AN UNDERSTANDING OF the biomedical sciences is important in nursing, as such knowledge provides the scientific basis of clinical practice (Clancy et al 2000). In most nursing common foundation programmes (CFPs), biomedical science is taught from the outset in large classes, often to academically inexperienced first- year nursing students (Montgomery et al 2009). Herein lies a challenge, because of the complexity of concepts that need to be taught and the students' level of confidence in learning new subject material.
In many institutions, the lecture is the favoured method of disseminating biomedical science knowledge as it is seen as the most efficient and economical way to teach large classes of students. However, whether lectures are the best means of teaching undergraduate nursing and medical students has been challenged. Lectures have been criticised as outdated and ineffective (Biggs...