Abstract
This study aimed to verify the effects of a new instructional method to structure knowledge. The research hypothesis was that “Structured knowledge improves assessment skills of students”. Fifty-five second-year undergraduate students volunteered to participate in this study. They were randomized into either a group that received instructional intervention (n = 19; intervention) or a group that did not (n = 36; non-intervention). A survey and instructional intervention comprised pre-tests, individual instructional intervention, participant self-studies and post-tests. The students attempted one pre- and one post-test task, each comprising concept map drawing and assessment of actual patients with diabetes. Participants who received educational intervention described concept maps regarding the pathophysiology and nursing of diseases, and we taught a learning strategy to understand relationships between concepts and the assumption of clinical assessment. The results of the concept map drawing task showed that post-test structural knowledge scores were significantly higher for the intervention, than the non-intervention group (p p p < 0.01). The educational intervention in this study seemed to augment the ability to identify nursing problems, although we did not teach assessment strategies. The intervention seemed to confer structured knowledge with explicit conditions for applicability. Structured knowledge with explicit conditions and learning how to use knowledge to assess patients before a clinical practicum seemed to augment assessment skills.
Highlights
Nurses are required to have well-developed assessment skills due to changes in the structure of illnesses among aged patients and advancements in medical technology
The results of the concept map drawing task showed that post-test structural knowledge scores were significantly higher for the intervention, than the non-intervention group (p < 0.001)
The present findings indicated that educational intervention could improve the ability to identify nursing problems using structured knowledge with explicit conditions for applicability, we did not teach the assessment strategies
Summary
Nurses are required to have well-developed assessment skills due to changes in the structure of illnesses among aged patients and advancements in medical technology. The “nursing process” is the thinking pathways that a nurse follows when taking care of patients and they include “assessment”, “nursing diagnosis”, “planning”, “implementation”, and “evaluation” [1]. Good assessment skills are critical because “nursing diagnosis” “planning” and “implementation” are based on the initial “assessment”. Nursing students should have good assessment skills. Instructional Tools for Assessment in Nursing Education. Standardized patients or the Objective Structured Clinical Examination are used for assessment education in the USA and Japan [4] [5]. These instructional tools focus on student behavior and ways of thinking. Whether a sufficient number of studies have investigated knowledge used for assessment is difficult to demonstrate
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