Effects of a "credit bank" intervention on the professional identity and public stigma among nursing students: A...

To explore effects of credit bank on clinical communication skills, critical thinking skills, self-directed learning ability, professional identity and public stigma associated with hepatitis B patients of nursing interns in the infectious diseases department.

Employing a table of random numbers method, 140 nursing interns from the infectious diseases department of a grade-A tertiary hospital in Hunan Province were selected at random between an intervention group and a control group. The control group received routine clinical teaching in the infectious diseases department, while the intervention group implemented the credit bank practice plan in addition to the routine teaching practice. After 4 weeks of training, the disparities in clinical communication skills, critical thinking skills, professional identity, self-directed learning ability, and reduction of public stigma towards hepatitis B patients were examined between the two groups of nursing interns.

Statistics revealed that after 4 weeks of intervention, the scores of clinical communication skills, critical thinking skills, professional identity, and self-directed learning ability of the intervention group were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group, while the scores of public stigma against hepatitis B patients were significantly lower in the intervention group compared to the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05).

The results of this study show that credit bank teaching practice can reduce the public stigma of hepatitis B patients among nursing interns in the infectious diseases department and improve their clinical communication skills, critical thinking skills, professional identity and self-directed learning ability.