Perceptions and Expectations of Student Nurses Regarding the Use of Technology in Nursing Education at Parirenyatwa School of Nursing

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and expectations of student nurses regarding the use of technology in nursing education at Parirenyatwa School of nursing. Nursing is an essential component in human existence that ensure human wellbeing and has been transforming due to technological innovations. To achieve this aim the study conducted qualitative phenomenology to understand the lived experiences of student nurses at Parirenyatwa School of Nursing. The study adopted the Social Cognitive theory of Self-efficacy and the Technological Acceptance Model as the theoretical foundation of the study. The study intended to employ a sample of 10 participants from senior student nurses at Parirenyatwa School of nursing to conduct face to face interviews however, the final sample of the study was 9 participants because of participant withdrew from the research. The sample was selected using purposive sampling on the participants who meet the inclusion criteria set by the study. The methodology adopted was to ensure that the study produce quality data. The results emanating from the research show that technological use is common at the institution. However, the use of technology improved drastically since 2020 after the outbreak of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (Covid19) that transformed the educational system, a period coincided with the enrolment of the participants of this study. The use of technology became an essential tool in the learning process. The findings also show that the perceptions and expectations of student nurses emanated from two factors that are the psychological conviction to use the technology from the student and the ability of the institution to provide efficient technology. The use of technology is faced with a lot challenges such as negative attitude to adopt technology from the students with low self-efficacy, poor infrastructure, poor network connectivity and lack of skills on the use of technology among others. Improvement of the mentioned aspects was considered essential to change the perception of the student nurses. The study recommends a multi-stakeholder approach to improve the use of technology which can positively impact the perceptions and expectations of student nurses.