Distance education in nursing: an integrated review of online nursing students' experiences with technology-delivered instruction

Abstract

One proposed solution to educating more nurses to decrease and eventually eliminate the nursing shortage is distance education. But what are nursing students' experiences with distance education? Answering this question can assist in the development of effective teaching and learning strategies to provide for the development of quality distance education programs. This article provides an integrative review of the nursing literature to ascertain the student perspective of distance education. A review of nursing literature was completed using a number of databases and specific criteria to locate research studies specific to this topic. The studies were analyzed for validity and reliability, and limitations were mentioned. Student perceptions garnered from the research studies analyzed are summarized with the acronym DISTANCE ED. Implications, recommendations, and needs for future research are discussed. A supplementary review of the literature is used to augment the findings.