Comparison of effects of training programs for final year nursing students in Turkey: differences in self-efficacy...

Information literate person are aware of where and how they can obtain the information they need. Little is known about student nurses information literacy skills in different education programs.

To find out how final year nursing students rated their own abilities to acquire new information.

This study used comparative and descriptive cross-sectional surveys. Participants were final year students in two different programs, in two different universities in Turkey.

The study sample consisted of final year nursing students who received training in Classic Learning (N: 61) and Problem-Based Learning (N: 96). As an evaluation instrument for the perceptions of the students their own information literacy, a scale consisting of 28 questions with 7 Likert ratings for each was used (min: 28, max: 196).

The return rates of the surveys were 96.7% in the school with classic training and 81.2% in the school with PBL. It was found that the average scores of the students were high, with a mean of 137±29 in the school where the classic training program was carried out, and 163±21 in the school where the training was PBL. A statistically significant difference was found by comparing the average scores of the two independent groups (t : -6.0; p<0.05).

Students in both of the training programs rated themselves as high. However, PBL training had a stronger influence on the development of their self-perceptions regarding information literacy. We conclude that training programs should be reviewed, and new methods should be developed based on these concepts.