Comparison of the effects of face-to-face and electronic peer mentoring on students' care plan preparation and motivation levels

Abstract

BackgroundIt is a basic requirement in professional nursing education that nursing students learn the process of caring as the entity at the center of nursing practice. Peer mentoring programs can be beneficial for the mutual growth of mentors and mentees and improve the care competencies of nursing students. ObjectiveTo compare the effects of face-to-face and electronic peer mentoring on students' nursing process-based patient care plan preparation and motivation levels for the course. DesignThe study used an experimental three-group design. Settings and participantsThis experimental study was conducted with 83 first- and 6 fourth-year nursing students. MethodThe data were collected with the information and opinion form, the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS), and the Nursing Care Plan Rubric (NCPR). In the study, conducted with three subgroups of each group, the experimental group received electronic peer mentoring (EPM), and the experimental group 2 received face-to-face peer mentoring (FPM), while the control group did not receive any intervention. ResultsIt was statistically significant that the students in the EPM group had higher patient care plan preparation scores than the FPM and control groups, and the FPM group had higher patient care plan preparation scores than the control group (p < 0.05). Also, the students in the FPM group had statistically significantly higher confidence-satisfaction sub-dimension scores on the IMMS than those in the EPM and control groups (p < 0.05). ConclusionWhile electronic peer mentoring was effective on the patient care plan preparation levels of first-year nursing students, face-to-face peer mentoring was more effective in increasing the students' confidence and attitude levels and thus their motivation levels.