Development and effects of a chatbot education program for self-directed learning in nursing students

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Digital Health
• Clinical Skills Development

Background:

• Critical care nurses need strong thinking skills for patient assessment and intervention.
• Mechanical ventilation nursing requires precise knowledge and rapid response.
• Clinical nurses have identified a significant educational need in mechanical ventilation nursing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a chatbot educational program for self-directed learning in mechanical ventilation nursing.
• To assess the program's impact on nursing students' clinical reasoning, knowledge, self-confidence, and satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial with a pretest-posttest parallel group design was used.
• Fourth-year nursing students were divided into an experimental group (chatbot + videos) and a control group (videos only).
• The study involved 60 nursing students from a university in South Korea.

Main Results:

• The experimental group showed significantly higher clinical reasoning competency (p < .001), self-confidence (p = .011), and education satisfaction (p < .001).
• No statistically significant difference in mechanical ventilation nursing knowledge was observed between the groups (p = .926).

Conclusions:

• The chatbot educational program is an effective method for enhancing nursing students' clinical reasoning, self-confidence, and satisfaction.
• This approach supports self-directed learning and can improve overall nursing competency in mechanical ventilation.
• Digital educational tools like chatbots show promise in specialized nursing education.