Four steps

The Digisim application consists of four steps:

1 A short film of up to three minutes duration showing the procedure

2 List of equipment with everything needed to perform the procedure

3 An interactive checklist where fellow students tick off each step performed correctly in a procedure. These fellow students observe and monitor.

4 Self-training on fluency and speed: mobile phone placed next to it. A voice guides you through the steps. Then there is no need for fellow students.

Use weekly

Alexander Nilsen Christiansen is in his first year of nursing at Stavanger University and has been using the app two or three times a week since they started skills training at the end of September.

– This was an important help, both when I had to prepare the exercises and when I had to learn the procedures, he said.

– Don’t you miss the teacher’s observations?

– No, the first time we go through a procedure, the teacher is always present. If I have questions, I will answer them.

Christiansen thinks the app will give him the security he needs until he has his first practice of the spring.

– I hope that all the procedures that we will learn over three years can be included there. There is actually huge potential for this app, and it should be used across the country.

He hopes to use it during his studies.

– And when I finish my education, I also think that I will benefit from it. So it would be nice to have a tool that can remind me of what I have learned.

– Like making a cake

27 second year students in Stavanger have evaluated the use of the app through interviews.

– The students really liked it. They find it very “to the point” compared to the many information and learning platforms out there, Urstad said.

The films in the app directly address the procedures, and the equipment list outlines what students will need to do them.

– It’s like making a cake, said one of the students during the evaluation.

– They love it because the process is very fast and easy to access. After all, this was Generation Z who grew up with smartphones and were used to searching for information quickly, Urstad recalled.