Comparing the Effects of Simulation-Based and Traditional Teaching Methods on the Critical Thinking Abilities and Self-Confidence of Nursing Students

Journal Article

2018

Published in: doi:10.1097/ jnr.0000000000000231

سالم, د الفت . 2018

Background: Critical thinking and self-confidence are imperative

to success in clinical practice. Educators should use

teaching strategies that will help students enhance their critical

thinking and self-confidence in complex content such as

electrocardiogram interpretation. Therefore, teaching electrocardiogram

interpretation to students is important for nurse

educators.

Purpose: This study compares the effect of simulation-based

and traditional teaching methods on critical thinking and

the self-confidence of students during electrocardiogram interpretation

sessions.

Methods: Thirty undergraduate nursing students volunteered

to participate in this study. The participants were divided into

intervention and control groups, which were taught respectively

using the simulation-based and traditional teaching programs.

All of the participants were asked to complete the study instrument

pretest and posttest to measure their critical thinking

and self-confidence.

Results: Improvement was observed in the control and

experimental groups with respect to critical thinking and self-confidence,

as evidenced by the results of the paired samples t

test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (p G .05). However, the

independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test indicate that the

difference between the two groups was not significant (p 9 .05).

Conclusions/Implications for Practice: This study evaluated

an innovative simulation-based teaching method for nurses. No

significant differences in outcomes were identified between the

simulator-based and traditional teaching methods, indicating that

well-implemented educational programs that use either teaching

method effectively promote critical thinking and self-confidence

in nursing students. Nurse educators are encouraged to design

educational plans with clear objectives to improve the critical

thinking and self-confidence of their students. Future research

should compare the effects of several teaching sessions using

each method in a larger sample.

KEYWORDS:

simulation, electrocardiogram, self-confidence, critical thinking

• Volume Number: 26
• Issue Number: 3
• Magazine \ Newspaper: The Journal of Nursing Research
• Pages: 152- 157