Application Of Web-based PBL Teaching Model In Gerontological Nursing

BACKGROUNDThe aging of population has become a global issue in society and health field. Nowadays, our country enters into a society of rapid aging. However, there is a large gap between the development of nursing profession and the needs of an aging population, especially the development in the gerontological nursing profession. Therefore, the development of gerontological nursing profession, cultivation of "practical" gerontological nursing professionals who adapt to the needs of society and the improvement of nursing education in the gerontological nursing area is given to the priority. It also poses a challenge to the higher nursing education.The gerontological nursing is a new branch of nursing in China. The late nineties of last century, several nursing colleges such as the West China Medical University firstly opened gernotological nursing courses followed by national nursing institutions, the knowledge of gerontological nursing is theoretical very much. The knowledge of gerontological nursing and the basic medicine, clinical medicine, rehabilitation medicine, social science and information science have penetration each other. Meanwhile, the nursing problems of the elder are more complex than those of other people because of physiological characteristics. Therefore, the nursing care of the elder is very practical, requiring students to apply the theory into practical operation. The main teaching method of gerontological nursing courses is the traditional teaching, which is based on text theory and teacher-centered "indoctrination" education. Nursing students have few opportunities to practice, no interest in learning knowledge and receive theoretical knowledge passively. It can't improve their learning ability and benefit to cultivate the high-quality professionals. In summary, the new teaching model is to be explored and this is the important task of the gerontological nursing education.The neurology professor Howard Barrows from American established Problem-based learning model initiately in Canada in 1969. PBL is based-on problem, student-centered teaching model. Students study through the form of team collabration. Students collect information independently around problem, then, find problem and resolve problem. The characteristic of PBL is broking the subject line and setting comprehensive courses around problem for the purposes of cultivating students'skills of self-learning, innovation, using knowledge efficiently, solving problem. PBL was applied to teaching by the professor Barrows, then for its effectiveness, was applied to many medical educationin subspecialties of the world quickly. PBL were applied widely in nursing education,100 institutions among 126 American nursing colleges in different programmes to some extent, accounting for 79.37% till 2000. There were over 20% nursing courses using PBL. PBL achieved certain effectiveness of teaching in Hong Kong and Taiwan region of our country. PBL were introduced to mainland of our country in end of the 20th century. There are a growing number of medical school beginning to using PBL and its concepts gave the direction of reform and development in our medical and mursing education. PBL were used in the theory and practice teaching of Gerontological Nursing and proved to developping skills of co-operation and team working, problem-solving and self-learning.From the development of web and the application of modern education technology, the importance and direction of research for PBL has gradually turned to the integration of network environment and PBL. Web-based PBL teaching model have been applied widely in western countries and obtained effectiveness. In our country WPBL is still on the stage of exploration, it is related in medical theory and practice teaching, obtain effectiveness, but the application of nursing education is very little. Reserch proved:WPBL really has many advantages in medical and nursing education, it can effectively cultive the skills of resolving problem and critical thinking ability. The goals between WPBL and nursing education are consistent, so WPBL appling to Gerontological Nursing will be an important subject.PURPOSES1. To explore teaching environment and teaching activity design of the new teaching model of gerontological nursing from the study of web-based PBL teaching model.2. To evaluate the effectiveness of web-based PBL teaching model in the implementation of gerontological nursing:the influence of web-based PBL teaching model on the critical thinking of nursing students; the influence on the mastery of theoretical knowledge; the influence on the ability of nursing practice.3. To investigate the evaluation of the implementation of web-based PBL teaching model in gerontological nursing.METHODS1. Literature review:Design the teaching environment and teaching programs of web-based PBL teaching model under the guidance of constructivism theory in gerontological nursing.2. Quasi-experimental study:select 56 nursing students using random sampling in the nursing school of Jiujiang University, who took part in elective course "gerontological nursing" from March to May,2010. All students expressed their willingness to participate in this study. They were female, aged 18-21 years old who were divided into control group and experimental group. The web-based PBL instruction was implemented in the experimental group, the traditional teaching method in the control group and two groups received the test of critical thinking before intervention,using Chinese version of critical thinking ability of a measurement chart by Pen meici. Do research on the selected chapters in the gerontological nursing. The researcher evaluated the teaching effectiveness through critical thinking scale tests, theory examination and health education teaching aids made by nursing students after theory and practice classes. Release the questionnaire and investigate the evaluation of the implementation of web-based PBL teaching model. 3. Statistical method:descriptive analysis, Pearson chi-square test, paired t-test, two-sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U rank sum test and so on, Data analysis applied Excel2003, statistical software SPSS13.0.RESULTS1. Baseline information resultsThere was no significant difference in the gender, age (χ2=0.072, P=0.789), college entrance examination scores (χ2=2.925, P=0.232) and the origin of students (χ2=2.112,P=0.146). They were comparable.Critical thinking skills:The results showed on significant difference in the 7 traits and total scores (t=0.082, P=0.935) between the experimental group and control group. They were comparable. The nursing students of two groups showed open-minded (t=1.045, P=0.301), analytical skills (t=1.013, P=0.315), critical thinking self-confidence (t=0.265, P=0.792), curiosity (t=0.489, P=0.627), cognitive level of maturity (t=0.616, P=0.541), the search for the truth (t=0.582, P=0.563), systematic capacity (t=0.924, P=0.360) were no significant difference.2. Compare the results of theoretical examinationCompare the students'scores of theoretical knowledge in the gerontological nursing by Mann-Whitney U rank sum test (Z=2.247, P=0.025), there was significant difference. Theory scores of the experimental group higher than the control group.3. Compare the evaluation scores of health education teaching aids made by nursing studentsCompared the evaluation scores of health education teaching aids made by nursing students between two groups by Mann-Whitney U rank sum test (Z=2.818, P=0.005), there was statistically significant difference. The evaluation scores of teaching aids of the experimental group were higher than the control group significantly different.4. Compare the critical thinking ability (1) Experimental group before and after intervention:Experimental group before and after intervention:the total score of critical thinking skills of nursing students were improved. There was significant difference (t=-3.087, P=0.005) in the experimental group after intervention (WPBL teaching). It means that the WPBL teaching is effective on the critical thinking of nursing students. The search for truth (t=-4.761, P=0.000), systematic skill (t=-2.250, P=0.033), self-confidence(t=-3.950,P=0.001), curiosity characteristics(t=-2.053, P=0.049) were significantly different (P<0.05), and search for the truth, systematic skill showed the positive performances, while the open-minded(t=-0.932, P=0.360), analytical skills (t=-0.316, P=0.754) and cognitive maturity (t=-1.076, P=0.291) showed no significant difference.(2) Comparison between two groups:Compared the total score between the experimental group and the control group, there was significant difference (t=4.303, P=0.000), the WPBL teaching had better influence on the critical thinking ability than the traditional teaching. There was significantly different in the search for truth (t=4.659, P=0.000), systematic skill (t=3.148, P=0.003), cognitive maturity (t=2.322, P=0.024), self-confidence (t=3.582, P=0.001), curiosity characteristics (t=2.407, P=0.020), while there was no significant difference in the open-minded (t=1.437, P=0.157), analytical skill characteristics (t=1.323, P=0.192)5. Students'evaluation of the effectiveness of web-based PBL teachingThe nursing students of experimental group had the qualitative evaluation of web-based PBL teaching in gerontological nursing. The results showed that most nursing students expressed the positive attitude at the new learning model gerontological nursing. For example,85.7% of nursing students think that the WPBL was better than the traditional teaching; 89.3% of nursing students were interested in the WPBL teaching; 96.4% of nursing students hoped to continue implementing the WPBL teaching. Most students expressed that the WPBL teaching improved their ability in all aspects. For example,89.3% of nursing students think that the WPBL teaching method made it easier to master the knowledge of gerontological nursing; 92.9% of nursing students think that the WPBL teaching could improve autonomous learning and information processing ability; 85.7% of nursing students think that the WPBL teaching could improve communication and cooperation skills. The student teachers WPBL leading role in the recognition given to 100.0%. However,32.1% of nursing students think it was not worth taking a lot time of WPBL teaching in gerontological nursing.CONCLUSIONSThe web-based PBL teaching was implemented in the gerontological nursing teaching based on the PBL research and constructivism theory, this research concluded:1. The WPBL teaching method was better than the traditional teaching. The critical thinking ability of nursing students was improved; the performances and the scores of health education teaching acids made of nursing students were higher.2. The nursing students expressed their positive attitude at the implementation of the WPBL teaching method in the gerontological nursing.