Teaching psychomotor skills in nursing: a randomized control trial

Historically, McMaster University School of Nursing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada has utilized self-directed learning methods to teach psychomotor nursing skills to undergraduate nursing students. Second year students, in their post-clinical evaluations indicated a desire for a structured laboratory setting to assist them in acquiring these skills. In response, faculty designed a randomized control trial to compare the effectiveness of teaching psychomotor skills in a structured laboratory setting with self-directed self-taught modules. The results of this study substantiated the hypothesis of no difference between psychomotor skill performance of students who learn in a self-directed manner and those taught in a structured clinical laboratory.