“It Enables Us to Reflect More on Nutrition”: A Mixed Methods Cross-Sectional Study on Preclinical Digital Training in Nurse Education

Adequate nutrition is a basic human right, yet older adults are at high risk of malnutrition. Nutrition is not a part of most nursing curricula. Limited research has been done on digital case-based learning (CBL) in breakout rooms (digital groups); therefore, the aim was to develop and evaluate a preclinical digital CBL unit (3-h synchronously and with an asynchronously flipped classrooms approach) for prevention and treatment of malnutrition and to explore nursing students’ experiences and learning outcomes. Different scenarios for two fictive cases were created in which malnutrition-related challenges were included (such as terminal care) and embedded on the ThingLink platform. In an explorative mixed methods cross-sectional study design, students (n = 78) completed an online evaluation. The results revealed that students wanted more synchronous interaction with educators and less time alone in breakout rooms due to their peers being unprepared, passive and unfamiliar and not turning on their cameras or logging on too late. The learning outcome from quizzes and word clouds were high, but the added pedagogical value of ThingLink seemed low. This explorative study sheds light on central issues related to the use of technology in nurse education, resistance against student active methods and digital pedagogy.