Innovations in teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: comparisons of the impacts of different teaching approaches in psychiatric nursing on undergraduate nursing students

Abstract

Background Psychiatric nursing education was significantly impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and innovative teaching can be challenging. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of four approaches to psychiatric nursing education in the context of the pandemic. Methods A quasi-experimental design was adopted. Students were subjected to different teaching designs: face-to-face teaching (Class A in 2021), blended teaching with flipped classroom using roleplay (Class B in 2021), live broadcast teaching (Class A in 2022), and online blended teaching with flipped classroom using case studies (Class B in 2022). Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse the outcomes in terms of academic performance and course workload. Results The number of valid data points was 270. The results indicated that compared with Class A in 2021, the two classes in 2022 achieved significantly higher academic performance scores, and Class B in 2021 exhibited a significantly lower workload. Compared with Class A in 2022, Class B in 2021 exhibited a significantly lower workload. Compared with Class B in 2022, Class B in 2021 exhibited a significantly lower workload and achieved lower academic performance scores. Conclusion This study demonstrated that innovative teaching designs for psychiatric nursing offer advantages with regard to either facilitating academic performance or optimizing learners’ task loads. Furthermore, blended learning is a promising teaching approach in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future teaching initiatives could adopt student-centred constructive learning designs and ensure feasible teaching.