Authors

  1. Presti, Carmen Rosa DNP, RN, APN-BC

Article Content

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurse educators worldwide had to quickly transform traditional face-to-face teaching to online distance education. When transitioning to online instruction, Microsoft Teams was used in an adult health nursing course to support the clinical practice component of the course. Microsoft Teams is a platform that can be used as a hub for student and instructor online collaboration. Students in clinical sections were placed in teams and were able to work synchronously and asynchronously via this program. Clinical instructors were able to create individual and group assignments, enable a gradebook option, and load documents, videos, and web links within the program. Students worked individually and also in a shared workspace, which allowed collaborative editing of documents and chatting in organized channels that were directly related to group assignments. Teams also met with their instructors with the secure videoconference feature, although there are many other products that offer videoconferencing such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and WebEx Meetings. The use of the software helped students and instructors forced to isolate from one another during the crisis enhance teamwork and collaboration, which are essential components of safe, quality health care delivery.