Using students’ smartphones to learn a nursing skill: Students’ perspectives

The increase in nursing students’ enrollment in post-secondary education, hospital restructuring and limited clinical placements have shifted nurses’ education to require more e-learning platforms. E-learning uses information and communication technologies to support interactions with content, learning activities and with others; and to facilitate self-reflection. Using smartphones’ video applications in a hybrid course can support learning. Most nursing students own smartphones and use them to create videos, however, their perspectives on using their smartphones to support learning a nursing skill is limited. This mixed method pilot study explored undergraduate nursing students’ perspectives on using their smartphones to record, and later receive feedback from their peers and faculty when learning a nursing skill. Twenty-six students completed questionnaires and seven students participated in a follow-up focus group. Two overarching themes emerged: (a) technical and (b) adaptive challenges. Students identified technical challenges in using their devices and how this influenced knowledge application. Others highlighted that the activity helped them to reflect and relate to self, others and their environments. The clinical, educational, ethical and research implications of this teaching-learning strategy will be discussed.

Commercialization as a Recommended Approach to Hospital Restructuring Case Study of Łańcut Medical Center

Our society is on the brink of health care system reorganization and implementation of new medical technology. Hospitals have to be a core component of the medical revolution so they have to be prepared for the upcoming leap in their development. If Poland wants to be a pioneer in providing new medical solutions, the current ineffective system has to be changed. The necessary action should be taken to deal with the financial problems Polish hospitals have faced for over 20 years. The current structure of hospitals - SPZOZ, is old-fashioned and cannot adapt to a turbulent social and economic environment. The hospitals should be commercialized and restructured. Being capitalized companies will give incentives and new tools to deal with financial problems.The article presents an example of the commercialized hospital in Łańcut. We make the observations that commercialization increases: a hospital’s profitability, its employment productivity, its capital investment spending and leverage. The case proves that the transformation of hospitals to capital companies proposed by the Ministry of Health may be an appropriate approach and it does work once a reasonable management board is in charge. However, the legal structure alteration should be treated as the first step in the overall restructuring process. The article highlights the problem of managers of Polish hospitals who do not only struggle with financial shortages, but barely know which business model they should follow after commercialization to successfully run the restructuring process. Having examined the LMC the authors are crafting a prelude to the overall research on already commercialized hospitals to find an appropriate business model.