Podcasts and videostreaming: Useful tools to facilitate learning of pathophysiology in undergraduate nurse education?

Nurses require an understanding of pathophysiological processes to support safe practice in the clinical area. A review of the literature indicates that nursing students have traditionally found this to be a challenging element of the course. The increasing availability of newer technology in higher education such as videostreaming and podcasting provides the opportunity to utilise a variety of approaches to cater for a wider range of learning styles. In view of this, lecturers developed multimedia resources to incorporate into a pathophysiology module. An evaluation of students' views on the use of ICT to facilitate understanding of pathophysiology was undertaken. The majority of students appeared to welcome the incorporation of alternative teaching approaches into the module. Interestingly despite the opportunities which technology offers to enhance learning many of the students also highlighted the importance of maintaining significant face-to-face contact with lecturers. This supports the findings of the literature which indicates that students find hybrid learning strategies that combine traditional teaching with more innovative methods particularly beneficial.