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8DIGITAL COMPETENCE OF A NURSING TEACHER
MAKPAL MAMYRBEKOVA
1st year doctoral student of the specialty «Nursing Science», Astana Medical University,
Astana, Kazakhstan
GULNAR ZHAKSYLYKOVA
dms.,professor, Astana Medical University, Astana, Kazakhstan
GAUKHAR KUANYSHBAYEVA
head of the department of «Fundamentals of Medicine», Astana Medical University,
Astana, Kazakhstan
Abstract. Currently, issues related to the digitalization of education are relevant. This was predetermined by various factors, including the adoption of a number of legislative acts related to educational standards. One of the requirements for a modern teacher is that he has digital competence. In the near future, the country's economy will need new personnel who are well-versed in the digital environment, who understand how to apply the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality technologies in professional practice and life. This article analyzes domestic and foreign literature to identify different approaches to the interpretation of the concept, offers its own definition of digital competence of a teacher, its structure and content.
Keywords: digital competence, teacher competence, digital technologies, medical education, nursing, nurse educator.
The competence of a teacher is a complex combination of knowledge, skills, understanding, values and attitudes that lead to effective actions in a specific situation. Digital technologies can improve teaching and learning strategies in various ways. However, regardless of the chosen pedagogical strategy or approach, the specialized digital competence of a teacher consists in the effective use of digital technologies at various stages and in different conditions of the educational process. At the same time, digital technologies can facilitate direct monitoring of student performance, provide feedback and allow teachers to evaluate and adapt their learning strategies.
The concept of «Digital Literacy» was first introduced by Paul Gilster, an American writer and journalist in 1997. According to P.Gilster, constant presence on the Internet, in the field of hypertext, which makes it possible to quickly navigate from one resource to another, forms 6 new patterns of human behavior, information search techniques and communication features. This leads to the formation of network thinking, whose main feature is a high degree of information and communication activity.
P. Gilster identifies the following skills as criteria for achieving digital competence:
Criteria for achieving media competence:
1. skills of searching for the necessary information and tools for working with it, the ability to quickly master these tools (information competence);
2. communication skills with other users (communication competence);
3. skills in producing information in its various forms and formats (creative competence).
In recent decades, the concepts of digital competence and digital literacy have been increasingly discussed and used, especially in documents and discussions related to the definition of education policies in developed countries. The Framework Convention on the Key Competencies of the European Union for all citizens defines digital competence as one of eight competencies, «including the confident and critical use of information society technologies for work, leisure and communication». In 2013, the European Union adopted the European Model of Digital Competencies for Teachers Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu).
Nurses acquire the basics of these digital competencies during undergraduate professional training, continuing education, and deepen them in the workplace. In this process, nursing teachers play a crucial role in facilitating learning through technology to support successful technological evolution. Therefore, teachers themselves should be able to integrate the necessary digital competencies into their teaching work. This can be called pedagogical digital competence, which includes all types of pedagogical work in professional contexts where digital technologies are used.
Digital transformation has changed society and everyday life, revealing the need for a wide range of digital readiness in educational institutions.
Digitalization of healthcare also increases the need for new competencies. For example, nursing teachers should be able to use technology and work in a rapidly changing environment. In addition to innovative digital teaching, learning and interaction activities, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed problems related to digital resources of educational institutions, teacher training for digital learning and the overall level of digital competencies. To solve these problems, education and training activities should support the continuous professional development of teachers. To develop these educational activities, it is necessary to study the level of digital competence of nursing teachers and a valid tool that can be used to assess digital competence. Both the use of an existing tool and the development of a new one require careful familiarization with the phenomenon being studied and the available knowledge about it. For this reason, it is necessary to take into account the heterogeneity of the term «digital competence», which is also used interchangeably in various contexts. For example, the terms «digital competence», «digital literacy», «computer literacy», «electronic health literacy», «computer competence» and «nursing informatics» are used to describe the ability to effectively use technology for various activities. It is argued that digital competence is the most widely used concept, and it is becoming increasingly important in the research literature.
In the Finnish national project aimed at developing the competence and continuing education of teachers in the field of medical sciences, the competence of teachers and candidates for teachers in the field of digital pedagogy, the scale was developed and tested in a pilot study. The tool was developed before the COVID-19 pandemic and is designed to measure the level of digital competence of teachers. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the OODI tool was used to collect data on the digital competence of nursing teachers. This was part of the New Nurse Educator project (funded by Erasmus+), conducted from 2020 to 2023 and aimed at studying the competence and education of nursing teachers in 5 European countries: Finland, Spain, Malta, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
This study was conducted in accordance with ethical principles. The university's Ethics Committee authorized the study (February 16, 2021). Research permits from universities of applied sciences have been granted in accordance with Finnish data protection legislation. All teachers were informed about the study through an information letter sent by e-mail through contact persons. Participation in the study was voluntary. Permission to use, develop and reproduce the OODI tool was granted by the original authors.
The results of the study show that OODI is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the digital competence of nursing teachers. Using the OODI tool, the digital competence of nursing teachers was assessed as moderate based on their self-assessment. The tool can be used to assess the ability of teachers to use information technology as part of their work in the field of medical education. Thus, it is possible to identify areas in which digital competence should be improved. This information can be used to plan and implement the training and advanced training of nursing teachers.
In the future, standards for the digital competence of nursing teachers should be defined. This would allow for a more complete illustration of the required competence, for example, what type of technology use is required to achieve the highest competence.
There are four components in the structure of digital competence: knowledge; skills and abilities; motivation; responsibility (including, among other things, security). Each of the components can be implemented in various fields of activity on the Internet and in varying degrees of complexity
(working with content, communication, technosphere, consumption). Accordingly, four types of digital competence were identified:
1) information and media competence - knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility related to the search, understanding, organization, archiving of digital information and its critical understanding, as well as the creation of information objects using digital resources;
2) communicative competence - knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility necessary for various forms of communication and for various purposes;
3) technical competence - technical and software tools to solve various tasks, including the use of computer networks;
4) consumer competence - knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility that allow you to solve using digital devices and the Internet various daily tasks related to specific life situations involving the satisfaction of various needs.
Conclusion: The impact of technology and digitalization on healthcare systems will change the nursing profession worldwide. Nurses need digital competencies to integrate new technologies into their professional activities. Nursing teachers play a crucial role in promoting the acquisition of digital competencies and therefore must themselves be competent in digital technologies. Research on the digital competencies of nursing teachers is scarce, but indicates a lack of digital knowledge and skills, as well as support needs.
The impact of technology and digitalization on healthcare systems will change the nursing profession around the world. Nurses need digital competencies to integrate new technologies into their professional activities. Nursing teachers play a crucial role in promoting the acquisition of digital competencies and, therefore, they themselves must be competent in digital technologies. There are few studies on the digital competencies of nursing teachers, but they indicate a lack of digital knowledge and skills, as well as a need for support.
Therefore, the research and improvement of digital technologies and its integration into nursing practice in countries with different levels of economic and medical development is relevant for the training of highly qualified specialists in demand.
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