The effect of inquiry-based training on nursing student's operational skills in clinical settings

Due to the growing complexities of health care, the use of methods that improve the ability to think critically, decision-making and problem-solving in nursing is mandatory. This study aimed to determine the effect of inquiry-based learning on student's performance skills, satisfaction and clinical environments. This study was carried out with the aim of determining the effect of inquiry-based teaching on student's operational skills and satisfaction in clinical environments.
This clinical trial was conducted in the ICU unit of Valie Asr hospital of Arak in 2014. A total of 40 nursing students were selected through census method and randomly divided into two 20-member groups. After the pre-test, students in the control group and those in the intervention group received conventional (traditional) and inquiry-based training for 10 days, respectively. At the end of training, both groups took post-test. Finally, independent and paired-t and chi-square tests and using SPSS.V16 software were analyzed.
The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in clinical skills prior to training. But after the intervention, the intervention group scores in the areas of clinical skills such as arterial blood sample preparation (P=0.0001), connection to ventilator (P =0.0001), suction (P =0.0001), tube feeding stuffs (P =0.001) and skin care (P =0.001) were significantly higher than in the control group. Satisfaction points in the intervention group with a mean of 12/75±16/76 was significantly higher than those of the control group with a mean of 7/51 ± 10/06 was (P=0.042).
Inquiry-based training, compared to the usual method, leads to an improvement in clinical skills and the satisfaction of nursing students. Hence, it seems that this educational method is effective and beneficent for teaching clinical reasoning and practical procedures.