Effectiveness of simulation-based education on nursing students’ professional knowledge, attitude and self-confidence in handling child abuse cases

Abstract

AimThis study aimed to enhance nursing students’ professional knowledge, attitudes and self-confidence in handling child abuse cases through a Child Abuse Simulation-Based Education (CASE). BackgroundGiven that nursing students seldom learn about child abuse case management in textbooks, simulation-based education could assist them in appropriately handling child abuse cases when they become nurses. DesignUsing a quasi-experimental design. Methods190 nurses enrolled in a night school in-service program at a Taiwanese university were recruited for this study. Ninety-four nurses in the experimental group took a simulation-based education on child abuse while 96 nurses in the contrast group took a general nursing course. The pretest and posttest professional knowledge, attitudes and self-confidence of both groups were analyzed using generalized estimating equations in SPSS V22 software. ResultsFollowing the introduction of the CASE course, the experimental group’s posttest professional knowledge, attitudes and self-confidence in handling child abuse cases were higher than those of the contrast group (p < .001). Further analysis showed that professional knowledge increased with tenure, positivity in attitude increased with clinical ladder rating and male nurses were more confident than female nurses when handling child abuse cases. ConclusionsBased on the results, this study proposes recommendations for implementing child abuse simulation-based education for new nurses and those undergoing continuing education.