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