Contribution of an instructional module for lymph node evaluation: An experiment.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Nursing
• Anatomy

Background:

• Accurate lymph node assessment is vital for diagnosing various medical conditions.
• Undergraduate nursing education requires effective methods for teaching palpation skills.
• Identifying lymph node characteristics is a fundamental skill for nurses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of an instructional module on undergraduate nursing students' ability to identify lymph nodes.
• To evaluate the module's effectiveness in teaching the number and characteristics of lymph nodes.
• To determine if the module enhances students' palpation and assessment skills.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 68 undergraduate nursing students.
• An instructional module on lymph node palpation was administered to the experimental group.
• Lymph node palpation and characteristic registration were performed pre- and post-intervention, with statistical analysis using descriptive statistics and mixed linear regression.

Main Results:

• The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher accuracy (p<0.05) in evaluating lymph node size, consistency, mobility, and coalescence compared to the control group.
• The module increased the odds of correctly evaluating lymph node consistency (OR 45.26), mobility (OR 55.95), and size (OR 25.64).
• These improvements were statistically significant (p<0.0001 for consistency and mobility, p=0.0002 for size).

Conclusions:

• The instructional module effectively contributed to increased knowledge among nursing students regarding lymph node evaluation.
• The findings support the use of this module to enhance nursing students' clinical assessment skills.
• The module is a valuable tool for improving the accuracy of lymph node examination in nursing education.