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.

Nursing and Midwifery Students’ Perceptions and Experiences of Using Blended Learning in Rwanda: A Qualitative Study

“…Lack of face-to-face interactions between students and educators was considered to be a challenge by many participants of this study, corroborating findings from several other studies. [5,10,46,47] However, the finding that with BL, students may experience difficulties in courses that have practical or hands-on components is unique to this study as no other study reported this previously from the accessed literature. Despite the challenges experienced by students with the BL approach, participants in this study were more positive with the approach than with traditional face-to-face teaching.…”

“…[5] Another study found that students who were instructed using BL were able to perform blood transfusion procedures more effectively than those with face-to-face only. [10] BL, when implemented in nursing and midwifery professional courses, has been shown to improve nursing and midwifery skills, mostly Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), [11] and helped in the achievement of learning outcomes. [12] As the implementation of BL in educational programs increases, it is imperative to assess how students perceive this new and advanced way of teaching.…”

“…[13,15] Other benefits that have been highlighted include increased metacognitive skills, critical reflection, critical thinking, and decision making. [10,13] Although BL has many advantages, it also has several challenges. Technological barriers, such as the internet and other technology-related infrastructures, have been identified as key challenges [5,[18][19][20][21][22] that lead to technical difficulties.…”

E‐learning in transfusion medicine: A scoping review

“…While most studies applied online education, one study utilized video‐based virtual reality‐based experiential flipped learning (SVVR‐EFL), 33 and one combined online education with an in‐person simulation 7 . All studies reported positive impact of e‐learning in comparison to other modalities of education based on learners' perspective on learning achievement 16,26,33 and assessment results 7,8,22,27,30,33 …”

Implementation of the Blended Learning Method to Enhance Clinical Reasoning among Nursing Students

“…To solve nursing problems, students will need to go through the clinical reasoning process, which includes analyzing the patient's situation through a comprehensive cognitive process (formal and informal thinking strategies) and evaluating the patient's health information to consider an alternative therapy (Barratt, 2018;Simmons, 2010). According to several previous studies' findings, BL can improve students' clinical reasoning skills by helping students to transition faster from memorizing simple knowledge to being able to provide a more comprehensive level of analysis (Gouifrane et al, 2020). This method also allows students to develop their logical thinking and hone their reasoning skills (Giraldo-Garcia, Roy, & Alotebi, 2015).…”