Term of Award

Fall 2011

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading

Committee Chair

Dan Rea

Committee Member 1

Gregori Dmitriyev

Committee Member 2

Bryan Griffin

Committee Member 3

Deborah Weaver

Abstract

Nursing education is experiencing a generational phenomenon with student enrollment spanning three generations. Classrooms cultures are changing today and include some Baby Boomers and large numbers of Generation X, Generation Y, and second-degree seeking students. These culturally diverse groups of students have unique sets of learning characteristics. Given the current challenges of growing student diversity, balancing budgets, and meeting faculty shortages, nursing schools are pressed to find alternative teaching methods that are not only cost and labor saving but also effective and equitable for the diverse student groups. This quantitative, experimental research design study explored the effects of the alternative teaching methods of human patient simulation (HPS) and virtual clinical excursion (VCE) on self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation of 126 culturally diverse junior level nursing students. The purpose of this study was to determine if these simulation activities were motivationally effective and equitable teaching methods for students of culturally diverse generation and degree. The Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) group mean score of the HPS group revealed significantly higher IMI scores than the VCE group. While many HPS subscale scores were higher, VCE scores were still on the higher end of the Lickert scale. The results did not consistently confirm that any one particular cultural demographic group benefitted more or less from either HPS or VCE experience. None of the main effects were significant for any of the general self-efficacy change scores. Only one interaction was significant: simulation type/degree status for the GSE score with midlevel degree type HPS students experiencing a largely higher mean gain in GSE between the first two assessments than those in the VCE experience. Culturally competent educators may use the findings of this study to begin a dialogue regarding appropriate simulation activities for the changing culture of nursing students. Results of this study indicated that, while overall IMI scores were higher for HPS than for VCE, both types of simulation were motivationally appropriate and effective teaching methods for all types of students, regardless of cultural demographic factors. In addition, GSE scores remained relatively constant, indicating that both types of simulation were appropriate and effective for all groups in this study.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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