ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Nursing students struggle with anatomy and physiology course because of the complicated terminology and the difficulty in handling large amounts of information. New, innovative instructional strategies must be integrated into nursing education to improve nursing students' performance in this challenging bioscience course. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of an innovative teaching strategy, the flipped classroom, on the performance and satisfaction of Omani nursing students in an anatomy and physiology course. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used with two classes of 112 first-year nursing students at the College of Nursing, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. Online videos and active-learning activities about the respiratory system were developed and implemented in an anatomy and physiology course with 53 first-semester nursing students. The control group consisted of a previous cohort of 59 students enrolled in the same course but taught with a traditional lecture approach. The impact of the flipped classroom strategy was measured by students' performance on the final examination and students' self-reported satisfaction. Wilcoxon signed-rank and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare students' academic performance. RESULTS: Our results showed that the performance of the flipped classroom group was better than that of the traditional lecture group. The mean scores of students instructed with the flipped classroom method on the respiratory system items in the final examination were significantly higher than those of the control group, U = 1089.00, z = - 2.789, p < .005. Moreover, the results of a survey showed that nursing students were satisfied with the flipped classroom method. Overall, 68 to 78% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the flipped classroom method improved their learning and increased their interest in the course. CONCLUSION: Compared with the didactic lecture format, flipped classroom strategy improved Omani nursing students' performance in and satisfaction with an anatomy and physiology course. These results show that the flipped classroom is an important teaching strategy in nursing education.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To assess cultural competence among nursing students from nine countries to provide an international perspective on cultural competence. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional design. METHODS: A convenience sample of 2,163 nursing students from nine countries was surveyed using the Cultural Capacity Scale from April to November 2016. RESULTS: The study found a moderate range of cultural competence among the students. The ability to teach and guide other nursing colleagues to display culturally appropriate behavior received the highest competence rating, while the ability to discuss differences between the client's health beliefs or behaviors and nursing knowledge with each client received the lowest competence rating. Differences in cultural competence were observed between students from different countries. Country of residence, gender, age, year of study, attendance at cultural-related training, the experience of taking care of patients from culturally diverse backgrounds and patients belonging to special population groups, and living in a multicultural environment were identified as factors affecting cultural competence. CONCLUSIONS: The international perspective of cultural competence among nursing students provided by this study serves as a vital preview of where nursing education currently stands in terms of providing the necessary preparatory competence in the cultural aspect of care. The variation of cultural competence among nursing students from different nations should serve as a cue for designing a focused yet multimodal nursing education program in guiding them to be culturally sensitive, culturally adaptive, and culturally motivated. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The training of nursing students in providing competent culturally appropriate care should be ensured considering that adequate preparation of nursing students guarantees future competent nursing practice, which can positively impact the nursing profession in any part of the globe.
