MANDATORY VS. VOLUNTARY RE-DEMONSTRATION OF LEARNT PROCEDURES IN THE CLINICAL FUNDAMENTALS OF NURSING COURSE

Abstract

A quasi-experimental design was used to examine the effect of mandatory versus voluntary approach of teaching fundamentals of nursing course on students' performance. A total of 159 first-year baccalaureate nursing students were included in the study. Students were assigned into two groups; mandatory and voluntary groups. At the end of the semester, students' performance was calculated by taking the mean score of each group in the midterm and final clinical examinations. No significant difference in student‘s performance was found between the two groups at the midterm examination (t (146) = 0.176, P>0.05). Similarly, there was no significant differences (t (146) = 0.33, P>0.05) in students performance in the final examination in relation to the used teaching approach, the difference was also insignificant even when students that changed groups were excluded (t (103) = 0.14, P> 0.05). Although there was a medium positive relationship (r= 0.31, n=43, P< 0.05) between students scores in the midterm and final examinations, a significant decrease in students performance (t (42) = 4.12, P<0.0001) from midterm to final examination was found for students who changed groups. Students' performance has improved when mandated to redemonstrate the learnt procedures. Additional studies are required to explore the effect of mandatory clinical education.

Key words: Mandatory, voluntary, higher education, clinical education, nursing

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