Learning app and co. to inspire trainees for the nursing profession.

The nursing school at the Medical Academy at the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin has been using the Simpleclub learning platform for its training since October in an attempt to meet the learning requirements, learning conditions and expectations of the trainees.

By 2027, up to 225 trainees are expected to graduate with the help of the app. According to Simpleclub, the vocational students are supported along their "strengths and weaknesses profile through personalized learning paths". More than 500 companies such as Deutsche Bahn, Vodafone, Bosch, Brillux and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce are already using the service to train vocational students. An AI tutor is also being used.

We spoke to Anke Jakobs, head of the new nursing school at the Medical Academy at the BG Klinikum Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (Ukb), about her initial experiences with the platform in a nursing school.

What were your requirements for the software?

With the opening of a new nursing school at the Medical Academy at the Ukb, it was important for us to bring along today's generation, which is acquiring knowledge through digital media, among other things. We wanted to make digital access as low-threshold as possible for our trainees and impart knowledge via films, animations and gamification. When we were setting up the school, we looked at possible providers. Simpleclub's offering can be used in theory lessons with a very low threshold. Trainees can also use it to repeat and consolidate learning content at home or elsewhere.

What is the feedback on the app so far?

The learners have quickly found access to the learning platform and are highly motivated to work through the learning topics. The use of Simpleclub in the classroom also helps to ensure that teachers and learners enjoy discussing the learning content. Thanks to the various formats of the learning app and the built-in AI, trainees are able to derive and consolidate the required information very well.

Can you give an example of what a learning unit looks like?

A learning unit teaches how people can be accompanied and supported in everyday activities in life if their autonomy is limited. For people with limited mobility, for example, mobilization and positioning can be discussed and the individual steps can be visualized with animations.

For example, in the case of restricted mobility – a person has broken a leg –, the basics of human anatomy and physiology are discussed first. Furthermore, accompanying symptoms such as pain or fears when using walking aids are addressed. This is then visualized in Simpleclub using language as well as pictures and films. The trainees can then use the AI for the specialist content and ask it for explanations. Gamification is another aspect. Games can be used to identify gaps in knowledge, for example. The learning content is generally brief, but always with a reference to the relevant specialist literature.

How were the learning units created?

We discussed all the learning content with Simpleclub. We then developed three imaginary trainees who accompany the trainees for three years. In the various settings, they are then also on the road as nursing trainees. As a trained pediatric nurse, for example, I was actively involved in designing the content for the younger people in need of care.

I also attach great importance to the nursing professional approach with the illustration of the nursing proviso, so that the learning units are underpinned with case presentations and nursing diagnoses. Trainees are therefore continuously confronted with the planning and management of the nursing process, in addition to learning about nursing and medical procedures.

It is also helpful to digitally depict the anatomical structures of organs. This gives trainees a much better idea of how a heart works, for example.

So you also hope that this will get more people interested in the nursing profession?

Yes, that is the ravages of time. You can certainly inspire trainees in this way. We also want to convey that the nursing profession is not just a sum of activities, but that it also involves a relationship with patients or residents.

What hurdles did you encounter during the process?

On the one hand, the framework curriculum is very general. On the other hand, the competencies required by law must be mapped. This means that the content of the framework curriculum has to be dovetailed with the needs of the Ukb and the educational goals of our nursing school. The next hurdle was the technical language – we set ourselves the goal of mapping the nursing terminology. A nursing educator was hired at Simpleclub for this purpose.

Then the teachers met regularly and set priorities, because the nursing process is the ultimate in nursing training. We also worked with nursing diagnoses and stored specialist literature and clarified which anatomical illustrations we needed, whether they were in German or Latin, for example.

We also use other tools, such as a digital library that is available to all employees. Digital tools are an important addition to teaching. Digital skills definitely need to be anchored in the nursing profession. This is also a partial competence in our Nursing Professions Act. We know that many young people have a smartphone, but that doesn't mean that they can use it to learn digitally competently. The AI tool also trains thinking, critical questioning and reflection.

(mack)