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Effect of Psychoacoustic Learning on Cardiac Auscultation Proficiency in Nurse Practitioner Students
Natalie A Cyphers1, Carol G Mest, Mary Elizabeth Doyle-Tadduni
1Author Affiliations: Assistant Professor (Dr Cyphers), Professor (Dr Mest), and Associate Professor (Dr Doyle-Tadduni), Department of Nursing and Health, DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
Background:
Assessment is a vital role of all nurses, yet cardiac murmur identification remains difficult for students. Cardiac auscultation is a technical, not intellectual, skill, and a psychoacoustic approach to learning is recommended. A psychoacoustic approach involves repetition of cardiac sounds to facilitate auditory perceptual learning.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a psychoacoustic learning modality for identification of cardiac murmurs by nurse practitioner (NP) students.
Methods:
A repeated-measures design was used. Following a pretest, NP students listened to repetitions of heart sounds, then took a posttest. Students were instructed to listen to the heart sounds weekly, then given posttests at 1 and 3 months.
Results:
All posttest scores were higher than pretest scores; no significant difference in scores was noted between posttests.
Conclusions:
Psychoacoustic learning may improve cardiac assessment. Further research is recommended with prelicensure nursing and NP students.
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