The effects of narrative pedagogy on increasing nursing students' willingness to practice older people care: A mixed-methods research

Abstract

AimThis study aims to discuss how narrative pedagogy of improving the positive attitude toward older people among nursing students and increasing students’ willingness to practice older people's care. BackgroundConsidering the progress of population aging, the requirement for nursing manpower in older people care is on the rise. However, related studies have demonstrated that nursing students generally have a negative attitude toward older people, which affects students’ willingness to engage in older people's care in the future. DesignThis study applied mixed method research design. For the quantitative study design, we have adopted a quasi-experimental study, pretest-posttest design. MethodsThe study adopted purposive sampling. A total of 87 nursing students in two classes of five-year junior college program in northern Taiwan were selected as the study subjects. The students were randomly allocated into an experimental group of 43 subjects and a control group of 44 subjects. The experimental group received narrative pedagogy of geriatric care course for 18 weeks with 2 h per week, the control group received general lectures. This study was conducted between October 2019 and February 2020. The quantitative data were collected using the structured questionnaire. The qualitative data were collected by individual interviews and students’ reflective writing. ResultsThe average scores of the older people's attitude (F=4.60, p < 0.05) and the willingness to care for the older people (F=4.19, p < 0.05) in the experimental group increased significantly, reaching a statistically significant level. According to the adjusted post-test score averages of the two groups, under the control of the pre-test, the Older Adults Attitude Scale (64.02 >60.22) and the post-test of the Older Adults Care Willingness Scale (11.63 >9.93) in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. In the qualitative analysis, four themes were emerged, which were negative stereotypes about the older people, myth-breaking for prejudice against the older people, new older people impression for replacement and rethinking for older people care. ConclusionNarrative pedagogy is an effective teaching method, which can improve nursing students' older people's positive attitudes and increase students’ willingness to practice older people's care.