Face-to-face instruction combined with online resources improves retention of clinical skills among undergraduate nursing students

Background: There is growing evidence that online resources used to develop clinical skills among students in the healthcare professions can produce equivalent learning outcomes to traditional face-to-face trainingmethods. Whether clinical competence is retained equally well for online and face-to-face training methods is not yet established. Objectives: The objective of the study was to compare retention of competence in using an IV infusion pump among nursing students trained in its use using three different protocols. Design: A quasi-experimental design was used. Setting: The study was conducted in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at a regional university in Queensland, Australia. Participants: Participants were 102 first year nursing students (female =89, male =13) enrolled in a medications course, ranging in age from 18 to 44 years. Methods: Three groups of participants were trained in the use of an IV infusion pump and competence was assessed following a 26-week period of no access to the pump. Group 1 participants (ONL; n =34) were trained online using an Intravenous Pump Emulator (IVPE); Group 2 participants (ONC; n=38) were trained on campus using an actual IV pump in a traditional face-to-face setting; Group 3 participants (ONL +ONC; n= 30) were trained both on campus using the actual IV pump and online using the IVPE. Results: As hypothesised, no significant differences in learning outcomes, measured by assessment scores out of 80 points, were found between the ONL (M =68.7 ± 5.9) and ONC (M=65.5 ± 11.5; p > 0.05) groups. The ONL +ONC group recorded the highest mean assessment score (M =70.0 ± 5.0) and completed the assessment task significantly faster (p < 0.001) than the other two groups. Conclusions: This study suggests that nursing students retained clinical competence in preparing and administrating IV infusions better when face-to-face and online learning were combined