Effect of educational strategies to develop nursing students' skills in pediatric procedures

Training nursing students on different pediatric nursing procedures by interactive learning methods prior to their dealing with children can ensure providing them with an adequate knowledge base and skills. There is a gap between theory and clinical practice. One of the methods proposed to block the gap between training and clinical practice is to transform traditional education systems into new method-based learning. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of simulation, blended, and self-directed learning methods on nursing students' skills in some pediatric nursing procedures.

A quasi experimental, pretest and posttest design used, with participant of 150 nursing students, divided into three groups equally. Students' skills were measured before and after applying the learning methods by checklist observation scales. Data analysis achieved by SPSS program.

Students' skills regarding nasogastric tube insertion, urinary catheterization, and intramuscular injection revealed highly significant differences between the study groups associated with "Greenhouse-Geisser" correction at P values = 0.001, 0.001, and 0.001; and large size effect by Partial Eta Squared (0.887, 0.902, and 0.582), respectively, of simulation strategy, and at P values = 0.001, 0.001, and 0.001; and large size effect by Partial Eta Squared (0.813, 0.936, and 0.883), respectively, of blended strategy, and at P values = 0.001, 0.001, and 0.001; and large size effect by Partial Eta Squared (0.871, 0.739, and 0.667), respectively, of self-directed strategy. It is evident of descriptive data the noticeable increasing of mean score on students' skills during post-test 1 and 2 that indicate the effectiveness of learning strategies. The level of students' satisfaction was high level in post 1 (80.1) and post 2 (95.3).

Based on the findings, the used learning methods: simulation, blended, and self-directed were effective in improving of nursing students' skills regarding pediatric procedures. We recommend to use these educational strategies to educate nursing students.