Effects of a Blood Transfusion Course Using a Blended Learning Approach on the Acquisition of Clinical Reasoning Skills among Nursing Students in Morocco

Abstract

learning clinical reasoning skills in nursing education is a challenge for teachers and students. This study investigated the effects of a blended learning program on the acquisition of clinical reasoning skills via a blood transfusion course. The study employed a two group randomised controlled design with an experimental group (group 1, 16 students) and a control group (group 2, 16 students) recruited from a population of second-year nursing students at the Mohamed VI University of Health Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco, during the 2018–2019 academic year. The experimental group received blended instruction, while the control group received traditional classroom instruction over four sessions. One month after the experiment, a post-test was conducted with both groups using 'key-feature questions' that included four clinical situations and 30 questions. The mean scores of the two groups were compared to assess the degree of acquisition of clinical reasoning skills. The mean post-test score was significantly higher in the experimental group than the control group (the p-value of the Mann-Whitney Test is less than 0.05). Moreover, a statistically significant correlation was detected between students' clinical reasoning scores and their theoretical examination marks. These results suggest that blended learning is useful for enhancing the clinical reasoning skills of nursing students, at least in the short term. Thus, it seems appropriate to develop more blended courses and integrate this approach into nursing education programs.