Nursing theorist and author, Dr. Patricia Benner, top-billed the online conference, “Clinical Competency Development via On-line Instruction During Pandemic.” Organized by the College of Nursing of Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU), the virtual international nursing conference was staged on 27 May 2021.
Nelia Capulong, Nursing Dean of OLFU Quezon City formally opened the proceedings. Due to the sudden shift in the educational landscape, she remarked that she viewed the event as timely and relevant for today’s nursing educators and students. “A question that comes to our minds as educators is how to develop the expected or required competencies of the nursing students who will be the future frontline healthcare workers rendering quality care to the individuals and community,” she said.
University President Dr. Caroline Marian Enriquez also addressed the audience. “We know that the nursing profession demands that future nurses and current nurses should always have the correct skills and nursing competencies at all times,” she averred. “This conference intends to impart alternative strategies on improving clinical competencies in online learning, recalibrate our syllabi to make it more relevant, and to learn from other international academic institutions about their best practices on effective instruction and clinical competencies.”
First speaker to take the stage was Dr. Maria Luisa Uayan, Dean of the College of Nursing, with her talk on “Academic/Institutional Resilience through the Pandemic,” a study she conducted in collaboration with Dr. Brian Gozun, former Dean of the College of Business of De La Salle University. She explored how the COVID-19 pandemic affected academic institutions, how they managed to build resilience and the actions to be taken moving forward.
Then, Nursing Program Head, Prof. Francis Vasquez, gave a glimpse on how the University prepared and planned for clinical limited face-to-face classes on campus. This involved the recalibration of the curriculum, retrofitting of facilities, and many other preparations which Prof. Vasquez detailed.
Keynote speaker Dr. Patricia Benner, Professor Emerita of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, shared her expertise to the audience. In her presentation, she tackled Clinical Reasoning, Scientific Reasoning– Nursing Process, and Experiential Learning. With these, she identified teaching-learning strategies for different learners: Novice, Advanced Beginners, Seniors & New Graduates. Later, Dr. Patricia Hooper Kyriakidis joined Dr. Benner to present the online simulation program NovEx (Novice to Expert Learning).
Dr. Rhonda Lawes, Director of Nursing Program at Lecturio USA, also tackled “Alternative Platform for Online Clinical Competency.”
The panel discussion on the Best Practices on On-line Instruction Around the Globe followed soon after. The members of the panel were Prof. Jenica Ana Rivero from the Southern Institute of Technology, New Zealand; Dr. Ferdinand M. Gonzales from the University of Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and Prof. Bienvenido Tabuzo Jr. from Yale University School of Nursing.
An open forum with all of the guest speakers was then held, where participants were able to interact, raise their questions, and clarify points.
The program was formally closed with a message of gratitude from Dr. Potenciana Maroma, Nursing Program Head.
The Conference had around 2,000 attendees from different parts of the world.
