Innovative approaches to teaching vascular access to nursing students in the COVID-19 era

For the student nurse, peripheral venous cannulation is one of the most stressful skills to be learned. Although some healthcare employers/establishments offer courses on vascular access and infusion nursing as part of their onboarding programs, ultimately educational institutions should share the responsibility to ensure that graduating nurses can provide safe infusion therapies.

An innovative vascular access and infusion nursing (VAIN) curriculum was created and mapped onto the entry to practice undergraduate nursing program at McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Canada. This presented an opportunity to implement new teaching approaches.

Students experienced multiple new teaching approaches including multimedia and experiential learning and live simulation to ensure acquisition of knowledge and psychomotor skills. The teaching approaches had to be rapidly modified with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The VAIN curriculum emphasizes simulation and directed practice, seeking to increase competence, confidence, and knowledge. The pandemic underscored the need for flexibility and creativity in content delivery.