Using critical creativity to support virtual methods of critical reflection for undergraduate and graduate nursing students

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to nursing education, given the ongoing changes in clinical nursing practice and the shift to virtual learning formats. This is particularly difficult to navigate for individuals who are nurses and simultaneously pursuing nursing education, at the graduate or undergraduate level. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of a virtual approach to enhance critical reflection for individuals experiencing the pandemic as nurses and nursing students. The approach is compatible with virtual teaching methods and strongly supported by critical creativity and practice development methods. Through a series of custom-designed YouTube videos, students were asynchronously supported to create an aesthetic piece (e.g., drawing, poem, etc.) that captured their experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students also provided narratives to describe their aesthetic piece and further explicate their experiences, based on focused reflective questions. Our research team showcased the study findings in visual and written formats using an arts-based website. Sharing these methods could support nursing educators to continue supporting students in meaningful critical reflection in virtual formats.