Background: There is growing evidence that online resources used to develop clinical skills among students in the healthcare professions can produce equivalent learning outcomes to traditional face-to-face training methods. Whether clinical competence is retained equally well for online and face-to-face training methods is not yet established.
Objectives: The objective of the study was to compare retention of competence in using an IV infusion pump among nursing students trained in its use using three different protocols.
Design: A quasi-experimental design was used.
Setting: The study was conducted in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at a regional university in Queensland, Australia.
Participants: Participants were 102 first year nursing students (female=89, male=13) enrolled in a medications course, ranging in age from 18 to 44years.
Methods: Three groups of participants were trained in the use of an IV infusion pump and competence was assessed following a 26-week period of no access to the pump. Group 1 participants (ONL; n=34) were trained online using an Intravenous Pump Emulator (IVPE); Group 2 participants (ONC; n=38) were trained on campus using an actual IV pump in a traditional face-to-face setting; Group 3 participants (ONL+ONC; n=30) were trained both on campus using the actual IV pump and online using the IVPE.
Results: As hypothesised, no significant differences in learning outcomes, measured by assessment scores out of 80 points, were found between the ONL (M=68.7±5.9) and ONC (M=65.5±11.5; p>0.05) groups. The ONL+ONC group recorded the highest mean assessment score (M=70.0±5.0) and completed the assessment task significantly faster (p<0.001) than the other two groups.
Conclusions: This study suggests that nursing students retained clinical competence in preparing and administrating IV infusions better when face-to-face and online learning were combined.
Keywords: Clinical; Nursing students; Online technology; Retention; Simulation.
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