Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Nursing Education Designs and Models
The Effect of the Learning Environment on the Acquisition of Psychomotor Skills
Janet Cooper, MSN, RN and LaVerne Grant, PhD, RN. School of Nursing, University of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, USA
Learning Objective #1: Discuss the differences in satisfaction and confidence levels reported by undergraduate nursing students related to different learning environments.
Learning Objective #2: Discuss the differences in the acquisition of skill and academic performance related to different learning environments.

Acquisition of clinical skills is an essential part of nursing education. It is also essential that students be highly prepared to enter patient care settings. This is traditionally the goal of nursing lab experiences. However, despite efforts to provide a realistic, safe, non-threatening, experiential environment in the college lab, students can still experience difficulties transitioning from practice to real settings.

This is the report of a pilot study using a nonequivalent control group with a posttest-only design to determine the effect of the learning environment on the acquisition of psychomotor skills in second semester nursing students.

The hypotheses of the study were:

1. Students practicing in the closed hospital environment will report higher satisfaction levels with psychomotor skill acquisition than students in the school of nursing college lab.

2. Students practicing in the closed hospital environment will report higher confidence levels with psychomotor skill acquisition than students in the school of nursing college lab.

3. More students practicing in the closed hospital environment will perform the designated skills at a satisfactory level than students in the school of nursing college lab.

4. More students practicing in the closed hospital environment will score higher on the scheduled written examination  than students in the school of nursing college lab

Participants were divided into two groups. Half of the students were assigned to the hospital unit for skills’ practice and check-offs on designated skills. Half of the students were assigned to the nursing college lab. Following learning experiences, participants self-reported satisfaction / confidence levels. Skills performance levels were determined by faculty observation using predetermined checklists. Scores on scheduled written examinations determined academic performance. Aggregate data is reported using mean scores and t-tests.

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