Relationship between Innovative Pedagogies Used by Nursing Educators and Development of Lifelong Learning Competencies among Nursing Students

Background: Incorporating innovative pedagogy in nursing education does not necessarily create novel teaching strategies, but it encourages educators to be communicative, supportive, and reflective, benefit from technology development, and focus on a student-centered approach in their teaching practices. These practices help produce lifelong learning competent nurses who can be creative, select evidence-based sources to meet their learning needs by using advanced technology, and have the decision-making abilities to provide high-quality patient care based on evidence. Objective: This study aimed to assess the relationship between innovative pedagogies used by nursing educators and the development of lifelong learning competencies perceived by master’s degree nursing students. Settings: The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing, Damanhour University, during the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023. Subjects: (51) nurse educators teach master courses, and (133) nursing students received the preliminary courses of the master program during the autumn 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Tools: two tools were used. “Competencies and characteristics for innovative teaching questionnaire” and “Lifelong learning competence scale”. Results: This study showed a statistically significant correlation between the nursing educators' characteristics of innovative teaching and the development of students' lifelong learning competencies. Conclusion: Applying innovative pedagogy characteristics with different teaching strategies helps develop lifelong learners to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. Recommendations: Higher educational institutions plan a professional development program that can be used to train, orient, stimulate, and evaluate educators about pedagogical practices that promote innovation and help students gain lifelong learning competencies.