Development and Effects of Pre-clinical Research Nurse Programs of Nursing Students

Abstract

Objectives: Clinical research nurses play an important role in clinical trials. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of pre-clinical research nurse program on biomedical ethics awareness, critical thinking disposition and teamwork in nursing students. Methods: This study was a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design: the participants included 55 nursing students (28 in the experimental and 27 in the control group). Biomedical ethics awareness, critical thinking disposition and teamwork between the experimental and control groups were measured before and after the program participation. Data were collected from November 1 to 19, 2021 by taking a self reported survey and analyzed by using Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, Independent t-test, and Paired t-test with SPSS WIN 25.0 program. Results: The experimental group showed higher biomedical ethics awareness (t=2.15, <i>p</i>=0.036) relative to those of the conrol group after the program participation. However, there were no statistical differences in critical thinking disposition (t=1.29, <i>p</i>=0.204) and teamwork (t=1.97, <i>p</i>=0.054) between the twp groups. Conclusions: According to these results, pre-clinacal research nurse program developed in this study could be used to increase biomedical ethics awareness of nursing students. In addition, there is a need to develop modified programs with various teaching methods to increase the level of critical thinking disposition and teamwork as well as biomedical ethics awareness in nursing students who may become clinical research nurses in the future.