The effect of smartphone application-based learning on intensive care nurses' knowledge about the arterial gas interpretation

Arterial blood gas interpretation is necessary to train nurses in intensive care units. The need to use modern educational methods to improve the knowledge of nurses with long-term durability is considered important. Regarding the importance of using technology in nursing education and the necessity of interpretation of arterial blood gas testing, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of arterial blood gas interpretation training on mobile phones on the knowledge of intensive care unit nurses.

This quasi-experimental study were performed on 114 critical care units nurses of three teaching hospital affiliated to Qom University of Medical Sciences.The hospitals were randomized in three groups (application smartphone, lecture) and controls were allocated. Lecture group content and application smartphone packages was the same content. In the educational application group on mobile phones, educational content was designed as software in the Android environment. The app was installed on the mobile phones of nurses working in the intensive care unit, and they were asked to use it during the day. In the lecture group, the same content was presented in person in two sessions. The control group did not have any special training in this field during this period. The study tool was a questionnaire that included demographic data and researcher-made scale on the interpretation of blood gases. The questionnaires were completed before and 4 weeks after the training in groups. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software 21 and descriptive and inferential statistical tests.

The mean age of the samples was 28.91 ± 2. 12 and 1.66 ± 0.89 years of professional experience in intensive care unit. In two groups, after the intervention, the score obtained from the blood gas interpretation test was increased The difference between the mean test scores of the educational application group in mobile phone (77.46) and lecture (73.79) compared to the control group (54.57) was statistically significant (p <0.001). In other words, using application smartphone had significantly more effect on nurseschr learning. In other words, using application smartphone had significantly more effect on nurseschr  learning.

Considering the results of this study indicating the positive effect of application smartphone learning on nurseschr knowledge, Therefore, it is recommended as an alternative method or use other training supplements for teaching special cases such as blood gases interpretation in nursing.