Nursing students learning the pharmacology of diabetes mellitus with complexity-based computerized models: A quasi-experimental study

The effects of an active learning mechanism on cognitive load and learning achievement: A new approach for pharmacology teaching to Taiwanese nursing students

BACKGROUND

Nursing students require learning strategies when studying pharmacology. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the prevalence of online self-study. The design of effective online learning materials has therefore become vital to nursing education.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to describe the active learning mechanism that helped nursing students learn pharmacology through interactive learning materials and to demonstrate that no increased cognitive load in nursing students when studying pharmacology using interactive learning materials.

METHOD

We designed an active learning mechanism to help nursing students study pharmacology by using interactive learning materials. An experimental pre- and post-test design was conducted. The participants were second-year nursing students (age 16-17) in a junior college of nursing. Students were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 98) and a control group (n = 90).

RESULTS

We developed multi-media interactive learning materials and an active learning mechanism to enable nursing students to learn pharmacology. The proposed approach not only improved learning achievements but also reduced the cognitive load of nursing students.

CONCLUSION

The major contribution of this study exhibits a new approach to practice wherein active learning is incorporated into interactive pharmacology materials for nursing students. This can be attributed to the design features of "explanation," "quiz and feedback," and "encouragement." Our results aid the development of effective interactive learning materials for pharmacology for Taiwanese nursing students.

Nursing students' experiences of service-learning at community and hospital pharmacies in Belize: Pedagogical implications for nursing pharmacology

OBJECTIVES

Many students seem to find pharmacology learning very challenging due to the complexity and variety of drugs they have to study. The number of drugs the students have to learn, the duration of time to learn the medications, and the evolving nature of diseases demanded learning beyond the classroom walls. This study explored and described nursing students' experiences in community and hospital-based pharmacy practice sites during their service-learning and its implications for pharmacology pedagogical practices.

METHODS

Kolb's learning theory provided the framework to explore nursing students' 48-hour service-learning experiences at community/hospital-based pharmacies in Belize and its implications for pharmacology pedagogy. The study utilized two qualitative approaches, reflective journals and focus group interviews, to collect data from 46 second-year nursing students. NVivo software and coding schemes were employed to analyze the data from the interviews and reflective journals.

RESULTS

Students reported learning medications, integrating classroom pharmacological knowledge at pharmacy practice sites, acquiring and enhancing communication skills, interpreting prescriptions, dispensing medications, drug calculations, taking inventory, doing vital signs, and patient education. In addition, students reported experiencing inter-professional relationships as healthcare team members. Anxiety was a major challenge experienced by many students at the beginning of the service-learning experience.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the importance of experiential learning of pharmacology amongst second year nursing students, offering the opportunity to inform and support pharmacotherapeutics educators in designing strategies for more effective teaching of medications to nursing students. It also supports the addition of pharmacy placements to the nursing curriculum' as it shows that nursing students can learn medications, skills, and teamwork from experiential pharmacy site posting. Combining classroom instruction with pharmacy experiential service learning might be an effective complement for teaching nursing pharmacology.

The Role of Science-Based Knowledge on the SARS-CoV-2 Virus in Reducing COVID-19-Induced Anxiety among Nurses

The COVID-19 infection has generated not only a risk of morbidity and mortality but also resulted in an enormous psychological impact on healthcare providers and the general public. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety and identify the role of protective factors. A two-part cross-sectional study was conducted, by means of an online questionnaire. Part 1 investigated 562 registered nurses, nursing students, and the general public. Participants were assessed for anxiety symptoms with the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory. A one-way ANCOVA analysis revealed that nurses had the highest level of anxiety compared to the general public and students, with 26% of them reporting severe anxiety. To identify how anxiety can be mitigated, the Part 2 study was focused on registered nurses from Part 1. Multiple regression revealed that a higher level of science-based knowledge of COVID-19 and professional experience were associated with a lower level of anxiety among nurses. The findings suggest that nurses are a vulnerable population prone to anxiety symptoms resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Having a deeper science-based understanding of COVID-19 may protect nurses from anxiety. This study underlines the importance of deep evidence-based knowledge for health providers, which may be generalized to a possible future emergency disaster.

Knowledge and information credibility evaluation strategies regarding COVID-19: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has not only caused significant challenges for health systems worldwide, but also fueled a surge in misinformation. Nurses as frontline health care providers should be equipped with the most accurate information on COVID-19.

PURPOSE

This study examines nurses' knowledge and strategies of information credibility sourcing.

METHOD

A cross-sectional survey among nurses and laypersons with no health care background. The questionnaire dealt with knowledge and ability assess credibility of COVID-19 information.

FINDINGS

Nurses' knowledge of COVID-19 preventative behaviors was significantly higher than that of laypersons; however, there was no difference in science-based knowledge of COVID-19. In contrast to laypersons, nurses in this study were better able to discern the credibility of health-related information about COVID-19 than laypersons. Yet they rarely used scientific criteria in evaluating conflicting information.

DISCUSSION

Given the importance of assessing the credibility of information, both information literacy skills and science-based knowledge about COVID-19 should be offered.

Glycemic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes: Are computerized simulations effective learning tools?

OBJECTIVE

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in adolescent patients is often characterized by poor glycemic control. This study aimed at exploring the contribution of learning with computerized simulations to support: (a) mechanistic understanding of the biochemical processes related to diabetes; (b) diabetes self-management knowledge; and (c) glycemic control. We hypothesized that learning with such simulations might support adolescents in gaining a better understanding of the biochemical processes related to glucose regulation, and consequently improve their glycemic control.

METHODS

A prospective case-control study was conducted in 12- to 18-year-old adolescents with T1DM (n = 85) who were routinely treated at an outpatient diabetes clinic. While the control group (n = 45) received the routine face-to-face follow-up, the intervention group (n = 40) learned in addition with computerized simulations that were embedded in pedagogically supportive activities. Participants in both groups completed a set of questionnaires regarding sociodemographic characteristics, diabetes mechanistic reasoning and diabetes self-management. Clinical data and serum glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels were gathered from medical records. All the data was collected at recruitment and 3 months later.

RESULTS

Analysis revealed improvement HbA1c levels in the intervention group (8.7% ± 1.7%) vs the controls (9.6% ± 1.6%) after 3 months (P < .05). Regression analysis showed that levels of diabetes mechanistic understanding and diabetes self-management knowledge, in addition to sociodemographic parameters, accounted for 31% of the HbA1c variance (P < .001).

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that learning with computerized simulations about biochemical processes can improve adolescents' adherence to medical recommendations and result in improved glycemic control. Implementing scientific learning into the hospital educational setting is discussed.

Adherence to diabetes care: Knowledge of biochemical processes has a high impact on glycaemic control among adolescents with type 1 diabetes

AIM

To evaluate the impact of patients' understanding of biochemical processes involved in glucose regulation (causal-biochemical knowledge) and of diabetes self-management knowledge on adherence to treatment recommendations among adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus, aged 12-18 years and able to read and write in Hebrew or in Arabic were eligible. Participants were recruited between August 2016 - January 2018 during routine visits to the Paediatric Diabetes Clinic; informed consent was obtained as customary. Patients completed sociodemographic, clinical and type 1 diabetes mellitus self-management and biochemical knowledge questionnaires. Adherence to treatment was assessed by patients' serum HbA1c levels, collected from medical records.

RESULTS

Ninety-seven patients participated in the study. Mean HbA1c levels were 9.2% (1.9%) and only 24 (24.7%) patients met the recommended HbA1c ≤ 7.5%. Lower HbA1c levels were strongly associated with higher family income, older age at diagnosis and with better type 1 diabetes mellitus self-management and causal-biochemical knowledge. A regression model showed that causal-biochemical knowledge contributed to the variance in HbA1c levels. Furthermore, causal-biochemical knowledge, but not self-management knowledge, was found to mediate the negative relationship between low family income and high HbA1c levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Causal-biochemical knowledge is a valuable component for the adherence to diabetes care and glycaemic control.

IMPACT

Our study suggests that causal knowledge is a valuable component that should be included in nursing and healthcare educational programmes for adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Modeling the Consumers Opinion Influence in Online Social Media in the Case of Eco-friendly Products

Social influence has a positive impact on the purchase intention for eco-friendly products along with other subjective and objective aspects related to environmental attitude, product attitude, and subjective and objective knowledge. Also, exposure to media has been proven to have a significant positive affect on environmental attitude, with effect on the purchase intention. Several recent studies have shown the importance of consumers’ influence in online social networks, underlying the role played by the online environments over consumers’ attitude. As a result, the current research tries to analyze the influence exerted on consumers’ decision to purchase eco-friendly products by their activity in online social environments. Using a questionnaire, filled-in by 409 respondents, a series of variables have been extracted with regard to the eco-friendly products. An agent-based model has been created, fed with the values of the variables extracted from the questionnaire, and used for simulations. As a result, it has been observed that an increase in online media exposure can have a high positive impact on the eco-friendly product adoption. Depending on the type of product—soft or durable good—different times for the eco-friendly product adoption have been determined relatively to the considered variables. Last, the possible limitations of using an agent-based modeling approach are discussed, along with possible extensions and improvements.

Designing for online computer-based clinical simulations: Evaluation of instructional approaches

BACKGROUND

Online computer-based simulations are becoming more widespread in nursing education. Therefore, an understanding of when and how to implement the variety of instructional strategies related to these simulations is fundamental.

OBJECTIVES

This study compares the effectiveness of online computer-based simulations designed using two alternative instructional approaches-Productive Failure and Simple-to-Complex sequencing-on learning of clinical reasoning skills.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants in this study were undergraduate nursing students (n = 103, mean age = 23.4 ± 2.1) enrolled at a university in Israel.

METHODS

Participants completed two online simulations designed using Productive Failure approach (emergency medicine, mental health) and two online simulations using Simple-to-Complex approach (cardiovascular health, pediatrics). Pre- and post-test clinical reasoning evaluations were administered prior to and immediately following each simulation.

RESULTS

Clinical reasoning learning gains were significantly higher for online simulations designed with the Simple-to-Complex approach than simulations designed with Productive Failure approach (F (3, 288) = 9.656, P < 0.001). Students devoted significantly more time (F (1, 102) = 260.15, P < 0.001) and more attempts (F (1, 102) = 167.39, P < 0.001) in learning with Simple-to-Complex simulations than they did with Productive Failure simulations. The amount of time that students were engaged in learning with simulations was significantly associated with learning gains scores.

CONCLUSIONS

This study proposes that well-designed online simulations can improve nursing students' clinical reasoning. The Simple-to-Complex approach was found to be more efficient than Productive Failure for online learning. Learning with Simple-to-Complex approach was behaviorally more engaging and students' achievements were higher, which implies that instructional process facilitates learning, and therefore have to be taken in consideration by nurse educators. Integration of computerized educational modalities within nursing education is discussed.