Rwandan Nursing and Midwifery Faculty\u27s Experiences of Applying Knowledge about Teaching Methodology to Practice in Academic and Clinical Settings with Students (original) (raw)

Aim and objectives: Nursing and midwifery faculty play a vital role in nursing and midwifery students' professional development as soon-to-be clinicians by enabling them to gain essential competencies in perinatal and neonatal care. To enhance the quality of pre-service education of nursing and midwifery students in Rwanda, nursing and midwifery faculty participated in continuous professional development (CPD) educational workshops about teaching methodologies. The study's aim was to explore nursing and midwifery faculty's experiences of translating the knowledge and skills acquired from the workshops about teaching methodologies into their teaching practice in academic and clinical practice contexts. Methodology: A qualitative descriptive design was used with a purposive sample of 15 nursing and midwifery faculty from six private and public schools. Participants were involved in semistructured individual interviews. Inductive content analysis was used for generating themes. Results: Five themes emerged: enhanced competencies about teaching practices, application of knowledge and skills into classroom and clinical teaching, collaboration and teamwork, facilitators and challenges to applying knowledge and skill into practice, and indirect outcomes to maternal and child health care. Discussion and recommendations: Although educators' knowledge, skills, and confidence for teaching practice increased after participation in CPD, application of new skills was often hampered by insufficient resources and heavy workloads. The results support ongoing CPD programs for nursing and midwifery faculty members to increase their competencies around classroom and clinical teaching practice which can create a positive learning environment for students. The findings of this study highlighted that the application of competencies acquired from CPD workshops into teaching practice was perceived to ultimately contribute to improved student learning outcomes, and thus, enhanced maternal and child health care in Rwanda.