Evaluate the Value and Significance of Three Quantitative Studies
Article 1 Reference citation Khatiban and Sangestani (2014). The effects of using problem-based learning in the clinical nursing education on the students’ outcomes in Iran: A quasi-experimental study. Nurse Education in Practice, 14(6), 698-703. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2014.10.002 |
Article 2 Reference citation Cote, Gagnon, Houme, Abdeljelil, and Gagnon (2012). Using the theory of planned behaviour to predict nurses’ intention to integrate research evidence into clinical decision‐making. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68(10), 2289-2298. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05922.x |
Article 3 Reference citation Mulready-Shick, Flanagan, Banister, Mylott, and Curtin (2013). Evaluating dedicated education units for clinical education quality. Journal of Nursing Education, 52(11), 606-614. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20131014-07 |
From the findings of the study by Khatiban and Sangestani (2014), it was clear that students exposed to the PBL clinical course initially were evaluated lower in general knowledge and skill than those in the NPBL group; however, PBL students reported higher scores than those of the NPBL students at the end of the clinical education experience. One reason for this lower initial score of the PBL group was explained by the two-way ANOVA which demonstrated that the PBL students had explained their specific knowledge and skill scores lower than the NPBL students at the beginning; however, evaluated themselves more competent than the NPBL group following the clinical course (Khatiban & Sangestani, 2014, p. 700). All the students in the NPBL group were trained in nursing care as routine, meaning that they were mostly practicing based on the task assignments. They performed procedural care without any nursing care plan. They also had a lecture about the patients’ disease in the ward and wrote nursing plans for their patients at the end of training using the textbooks. On the other hand, the PBL course was planned following the nursing process of assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The PBL group had a structured learning experience.
These findings suggest that the PBL process was effective in enhancing students’ general knowledge and skills in all five steps of the nursing process that consist of assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation; which supports the notion that students are more satisfied and feel more connected when their clinical experience is purposeful with constructive feedback attached to clinical outcomes. According to Khatiban and Sangestani (2014), even though the study found both groups had similar attitudes toward their professional relationship with staff and mentors, and in using science to solve clinical problems, the researchers expected the PBL students to have a more positive attitude towards their learning experience than the NPBL students because the PBL students experienced a continuous interaction working in small groups rather than their learning being a solitary activity. Khatiban and Sangestani (2014) suggested that mentors be trained before implementing a PBL program. Khatiban and Sangestani’s (2014) study demonstrated that infusing innovative instructional strategies, such as PBL in clinical education, can influence the quality and quantity of clinical education; thus, enhancing clinical reasoning through a learner-centered approach which guides thinking and doing.
Cote et al. (2012) identified the relationships between nurses’ intention to integrate research findings into clinical decision-making to the prediction of beliefs of the moral norm, control beliefs, and normative beliefs. Study results from Cote et al. (2012) showed that moral norms, perceived behavioral controls, normative beliefs, and past behaviors appear to be the variables that can predict nurses’ intention to integrate research findings into clinical decision-making. Findings also revealed that the moral norm was identified as the most important predictor of nurses’ intention to integrate research evidence into their clinical decision-making. Moral norm is culturally affiliated so a question arises from isolating the variable moral to be the most important predictor of nurses’ intentions to integrate research evidence into their clinical decision-making. The question being, whose culture is moral norm referencing to?
Normative and control beliefs and past behavior also contributed to predicting nurses’ intentions. In prospect of interventions, Cote et al. (2012) cautioned that emphasis should be placed on the fact that nurses have important responsibilities in the healthcare system, given that their behavior can have major consequences on the health of others while avoiding a blaming discourse. The only control belief that was significantly associated with nurses’ intention to integrate research findings into their practice was the applicability of these findings to the reality of nursing practice, suggesting that interventions promoting translation of research findings should ensure their relevance to the specialty of nursing practices and to place it in a particular context to the specific clinical environment. Cote et al.’s (2012) study findings isolating variables that can predict nurses’ intention to integrate research findings into clinical decision-making is a significant move forward in understanding determinants of nurses’ intention to integrate research evidence into their clinical decision-making. In fact, the moral norm is perceived by individuals as a feeling of moral obligation towards performing a given behavior (Cote et al., 2012). Cote et al.’s (2012) study findings that moral norm is the most important predictor of nurses’ intention to integrate research evidence into their clinical decision-making is worth exploring to determine if this predictor variable moral norm can help educators identify concrete programs, or to make policy recommendations.
Findings from the Mulready-Shick et al. (2013) study provided evidence from student nurses’ perspective. The DEU faculty-nurse-student partnership provided students with superior clinical education experiences. It is believed that students immersed in nursing work in the environment of practice alongside these specifically trained, experienced nurses are afforded more opportunities for practice of essential cognitive and psychomotor skills than traditional groups or preceptor models of clinical education (Mulready-Shick et al. (2013). Another finding from the Mulready-Shick et al. (2013) study is that students educated in the DEU report significantly greater growth in clinical learning, more favorably rate instructor quality, and unit learning opportunities, and demonstrate greater opportunities in developing important professional competencies.