An innovative educational strategy for learning and teaching clinical skills during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background. Educational institutions were compelled to adapt their educational strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The innovation of boot camps as a strategy for learning and teaching clinical skills was applied by a school of nursing immediately after the hard lockdown in South Africa. Objectives. To describe the outcomes of implementing an innovative educational strategy for the learning and teaching of clinical skills in an undergraduate nursing programme. Methods. The study comprised a parallel convergent mixed-methods design. Qualitative data were collected from educators (n=7) involved with the boot camps, while the quantitative data comprised module evaluations by 219 students and summative practical assessment scores. Thematic analysis through an inductive approach was applied for the qualitative data, while central tendency and frequencies were used to analyse the quantitative data. Results. Three themes emerged from the narrative data, i.e. rationalising the boot camps, executing the boot camps and learning from the boot camps. Quantitative data support each of the themes. The boot camps appeared to have been appreciated as an emergency innovative educational strategy, with improved student assessment outcomes. Conclusions. The COVID-19 pandemic forced education institutions to adopt a variety of innovative educational strategies. Boot camps appear to have positively influenced the learning and teaching of clinical skills at a school of nursing. There is a need for robust longitudinal research evaluating the long-term effect of such innovative educational strategies.