The Effect of Problem-Based Learning on Nursing Student's Learning Level

To offer a better care in complex clinical environments and with rapid changesin technology, nurses need to improve their problem-solving skill. Student-centered and active learning approaches are more effective in this regard. Hence, this study was to determine the effect of Problem-BaseLearning (PBL) on nursing student's learning level.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 32 nursing students (in their fifth semester) whhad chosen mental health course in Golestan University of Medical Sciences in 2007. The students were randomly divided into two groups of cases (8 persons) and controls (24 persons). Having applied PBL and lecture during the course, learning was evaluated via theoretical exams of similar content and cognitive levin two groups, right at the end and two months after the course. Data was analyzed using Mann-Whitney anindependent t- Test. The level of significance was 0.05.

Most of the students, with a mean (±SD) age of 21.85(±1.97) years, were single (90.62%), and lived in a dormitory (75%). Although the mean scores were higher in cases compared to the controls two months after the course, there was no significant difference in both groups regarding overall learning. However, a significant difference was seen in different cognitive levels (P<0.0001); this implies that lecturbased learning students got a better score in knowledge level whereas PBL students received a higher scorein tests of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

our results suggest that although both forms of teaching were effective, PBL seemed to be more effective than Lecture Based Learning in improving knowledge level and constant learning