Comparing Efficacy of Implementing Two Teaching Methods Contract Learning and Traditional Instruction on Clinical Skills of Nursing Students in Psychiatric Wards of Hospitals of Tehran

• Main Authors: Jamileh Mohtashami, F Noughani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services 2009-06-01
• Series: Journal of Medical Education
• Subjects: NURSING STUDENTS, LEARNING CONTRACTS , TRADITIONAL METHOD , MOTIVATION , AUTONOMY, PSYCHIATRIC WARDS
• Online Access: http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/jme/article/view/1029
• ISSN: 1735-3998; 1735-4005

Background and purpose: A learning contract is defined as a written agreement between teacher and student which makes explicit what a learner will do to achieve specified learning outcomes.<br />Learning contracts have been used as a teaching and learning strategy for both undergraduate and graduate nursing students in many countries.<br />Methods : This research is a quasi-experimental study that compares effect of two different teaching methods , Contract learning and traditional on clinical skills for a group of nursing students who were in fourth year of study in a pre-registration bachelor of nursing degree program in Tehran . A learning contract was implemented as a learning tool in the students clinical placement in psychiatric nursing .Data were connected from questionnaires , interviews and clinical evaluation papers with students .<br />Results : The results showed that students agreed that there was an increase in students autonomy and motivation in learning with the use of learning contract . It also increased the sharing between students and clinical instructors.<br />Conclusion : According to the findings of this study , contract learning is considered beneficial to students learning and has the potential to be used in clinical learning .<br />Key words : NURSING STUDENTS, LEARNING CONTRACTS , TRADITIONAL METHOD , MOTIVATION , AUTONOMY, PSYCHIATRIC WARDS .