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Updated: Jun 4, 2026
A Machine Learning Approach to Design an Efficient Selective Screening of Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: January 11, 2020
Effectiveness of a standardized patient simulation training programme on nursing students' skill in dementia
Burnett Chila Chiona1, Balwani Chingatichifwe Mbakaya2, Megan F Liu3
1College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Aim:
To evaluate the effectiveness of Standardized Patient Simulation (SPS) compared with lecture-based teaching in improving dementia knowledge, dementia screening skills and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) classification accuracy among nursing students in Malawi.
Background:
Dementia is a growing public health concern, especially in low- and middle-income countries with limited geriatric care resources. Nurses play a central role in early cognitive assessment and dementia screening, yet nursing students often demonstrate limited skill.
Design:
A quasi-experimental two-group parallel pretest-posttest study.
Methods:
Sixty-eight nursing students at St. John's Institute for Health, Malawi, were assigned to either an SPS group (n = 34) or a lecture group (n = 34). The primary outcome was post-intervention OSCE performance in dementia screening, while secondary outcomes included dementia knowledge and MCI classification accuracy. Data were analyzed using ANCOVA and McNemar's test.
Results:
The SPS group demonstrated significantly greater improvement in OSCE performance compared with the lecture group after adjusting for baseline scores (F (1,65) = 56.39, p < 0.001, partial η² = 0.465), indicating a large effect size. MCI classification accuracy improved significantly (p = 0.001), whereas adjusted dementia knowledge scores did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.361).
Conclusions:
SPS significantly improved dementia screening and MCI identification accuracy but did not enhance theoretical dementia knowledge beyond lecture-based teaching. Findings support SPS as an effective strategy for strengthening clinical assessment and decision-making skills in gerontological nursing education.
