An abstract is an essential part of a research article and the three areas of importance in it are the language, or the readability, the sequence of information, or the structure, and the typography, or the presentation. (Hartley J. 2000). One specific goal of student researchers is learning to write an accurate abstract. Writing accurate abstracts is a learned skill. Students need to learn to write an abstract which has one or more paragraphs that are unified, coherent, concise and able to stand alone. (Jester P. 2014).
Technology can be used to increase the collaborative nature of training, but to build capacity and increase training effectiveness, technology must be implemented in a way to meet specific goals or used to deploy a learning element. (Askanase D, Berry A, Martone K and Swink R. 2016). Learning to write accurate abstract is a specific goal for novice nurse researchers that can use the implementation of technology such as video conferencing. They can be connected to experienced researchers presenting their abstracts with the help of Video conferencing.
Technology such as Online video sharing technologies is also a new and easier way for disseminating latest research findings and making it more accessible to a larger audience than the traditional academic journals. (Rokka J. 2016).
The purpose was to show case the use of technology for capacity building in research and in dissemination of research and collaborative training of MSN students
Methods:
To achieve these two goals the postgraduate research student virtual scholarly event "Nursing and midwifery research across Europe" which was hosted by the STTI Upsilon XI at Large Chapter was used as a platform for capacity building of eighteen Rwandan students of the MSN program Medical Surgical track, and one Rwandan PhD aspirant at the University of Rwanda, East Africa.
Rwandan students benefited as they joined the post graduate nurse researchers from Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom, University of Gothenburg, Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sweden, University of Primorska, Slovenia, and Bournemouth University, United Kingdom as presented their abstracts in a video conference. One researcher from Jordan was not able to join in due to problem with net connectivity. However she had sent her abstract by email which could be read by the students.
This was followed a short talk by Prof. Joy Merrell of Swansea University and President of the Chapter on the benefits of being in STTI.
Results:
The Rwandan MSN students joining in, in this technological platform was to help these novice researchers to structure and present their own Master’s dissertation abstract. It has helped them to broaden their minds and see for themselves that video conferencing involving several countries to disseminate their own Master’s research findings, is a possibility in the near future.
Conclusion:
Connecting MSN students from resource poor country to experienced nurse researchers across two continents, three countries and four universities to improve their abstract writing skills optimizes technology in nursing education