Effect of Role-play Training on the Knowledge of Nursing Students on Patient Education

Patient education is one of the main standards of quality of nursing care. Educational programs play a pivotal role in enhancing the knowledge of nursing students in this regard. The present study aimed to assess the effect of role-play training on the knowledge of nursing students regarding patient education. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 74 nursing students at Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. The participants were selected via census sampling and randomly divided into the experimental and control groups. Patient education contents were introduced in the control group based on routine university methods, while in the experimental group, the intervention was performed based on role-playing. The knowledge of students regarding patient education was evaluated using a researcher-made knowledge measurement questionnaire in the experimental and control groups. The results indicated that role-play training improved the knowledge of the students regarding patient education. Moreover, the mean score of the knowledge of the students in the experimental group (63.85%) was higher compared to the control group (46.41%), and the difference in this regard was considered statistically significant (P<0.001). According to the results, role-play training could influence the knowledge of nursing students regarding patient education. Therefore, it is recommended that role-playing be used in more than one semester using other active teaching methods in student educational programs.