Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of the Clinical Practice of Fundamental Nursing through Role-Play versus Traditional Method on Caring Behaviors of Sophomore-Level Nursing Students

Caring is a multidimensional nursing concept that can be actualized within the baccalaureate nursing curriculum through the purposeful teaching and student centered learning of core values. Although, the learning of caring is widely accepted, it has not been proved through research. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the effectiveness of clinical practice of fundamental nursing through role-play and traditional methods on the caring behaviors of sophomore-level students in the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery- Iran University of Medical Sicences (IUMS). This is a quasi-experimental pilot study using an equivalent control group and post-test design. Fifty one nursing students were randomly assigned in either experimental or control groups. The clinical experience of the experimental group occurred in nursing skill lab and the control group experienced their clinical practice in hospitals affiliated to IUMS on a routine basis. Then, caring behaviors of the two groups were observed in their first clinical practice of medical-surgical nursing using Caring Behaviour Inventory, CBI. This article has been allotted to the comparison of caring behaviors of the sample following clinical practice through these methods. Findings indicated that behaviors related to the subscale of "Respectful difference to other" and "Professional knowledge and skill" were, respectively, the most and least frequent behaviors in both groups. Man-Whitney test indicated a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the subscale of "Assurance of human presence"(P= 0.038). The same test indicated no statistical significant difference between the mean of the total scale of caring behaviors of the two groups. Regarding the absence of any difference between caring behaviors of the two groups, making changes in the future research designs and testing new approaches to approve the probability of learning of caring is needed. Moreover, using approaches for maintaining interpersonal aspects of caring in nursing curricula, increasing the time of clinical experience, changing the teaching styles of practical aspects of nursing, and integrating theory and practice, appropriately, is recommended.