Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 12, 2022 (SKNIS): The contemporary structure of nursing education has changed in St. Kitts and Nevis as an increasing number of courses offered by the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) are now available online.
Dr. Rondalyn Bradshaw, Dean of the Division of Health Sciences, said that the initial training for the staff to transition to an online platform was completed just before the Federation was impacted by the COVID-19 virus in 2020. The success of the online teaching and testing programme coupled with current trends in technology strengthened the conviction of the CFBC administration.
“Because of COVID-19, UWI (University of the West Indies) students are doing all exams online, so they (CFBC students) have no problem connecting the dots when they get to the online system,” Dr. Bradshaw stated on the May 12th edition of Working for You.
She noted that students are able to go online and access course content by reading the materials and taking collective quizzes.
“They have more flexibility, and they can read over the same thing one hundred times. They can look at the prepared lectures, the recorded lectures one hundred times,” the Dean expressed. “You can’t ask the lecturer one question one hundred times, but you can play it, stop it and make your notes … so it is very beneficial.”
Another benefit of online courses is the ability to reach many individuals at the same time. This is the case with the emergency medical responder course that is currently offered to members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force.
“It’s a 12-week course. The theory is online, but they meet face-to-face for the practical. I am happy it is like that because how many police [officers] can come to us, and we are training 40 of them right now,” Dr. Bradshaw indicated. “So, the contemporary structure of nursing education has changed. We no longer need the brick and mortar.”
An online feature called Shadow Health features a clinical simulation lab where students can get a feel for treating patients in a virtual 3D environment.
