Nursing students' knowledge gained about female genital cutting/mutilation through dramatization simulation with a...

Female genital cutting is a culture bound ritual involving excision of the female genitalia. Little is known about nursing students' knowledge and perceptions of female genital cutting and no studies using simulation to teach this topic exist.

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of a dramatization simulation on nursing students' knowledge about and perceptions of female genital cutting.

A quasi-experimental pretest posttest study with a convenience sample.

Two Bachelor of Nursing schools in Northeast Ohio, United States.

35 third year undergraduate students.

Students were divided into an intervention group (n = 14) and a wait list control group (n = 21). The intervention group took a pre-test, did a reading assignment and then attended a virtual, dramatization simulation session with a standardized patient; a Muslim woman with a personal history of female genital cutting. They took the posttest within the next week. The control group took the pretest, did the reading assignment, and then took the posttest, followed by the simulation. The survey instrument used for pretest and posttest was the Knowledge, Perceptions, and Practice Questionnaire on Female Genital Cutting for Healthcare Professionals in the United States. Debriefing was a critical part of the simulation.

The knowledge of female genital cutting of the nursing students in the intervention group increased more than that of the students in the control group (change score 3.57 and 2.05 respectively). Students' perceptions of female genital cutting were not significantly changed by intervention type.

This study was the first of its kind to measure nursing students' knowledge and perceptions about female genital cutting before and after a dramatization simulation. A standardized patient dramatization simulation including focused debriefing may be an effective education strategy to teach nursing students about female genital cutting.