Nurse educators' utilisation of different teaching strategies in a competency-based approach in Rwanda

Abstract

Competency-based education is outcomes-based instruction and is adaptive to the changing needs of students, teachers, and communities. It describes the students' ability to apply knowledge, skills and behaviours in situations encountered in everyday life. The competency-based approach was introduced in five Rwandan schools of nursing and midwifery during 2007. This was vital to the Rwandan government's plans to phase out lower-level A2 programmes and transition to a workforce of A1 or higher-level professionals. The new approach required nurse educators to use a variety of teaching strategies instead of the lecture method which had been used mostly up to that stage. The purpose of the study was to explore nurse educators' perceptions and knowledge concerning the competency-based approach used in nursing and midwifery education in Rwanda, in order to facilitate the implementation of different teaching strategies. Forty nurse educators from four Rwandan nursing schools completed questionnaires between March and April 2011. The nurse educators reportedly planned teaching strategies complying with the competency-based approach. Of the nurse educators, 90% (n=36) planned group discussions, 90% (n=36) used situations to integrate theory and practice and 82.5% (n=33) employed case studies. Challenges included increased workloads and greater time investments by the educators.