Web Tutorial Based on Case Vignettes for Teaching Literature Critical Assessment to Nursing Students

Summary

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of a web tutorial based on case vignettes as a complementary tool for teaching literature critical assessment to nursing students, in terms of: 1) knowledge, 2) tutorial quality and acceptability and 3) students' point of view on research participation.

Participants: Nursing second-year students from 3 universities in Paris (Paris Descartes University, Paris Diderot University and Paris 13 Nord).

Design: A randomized controlled trial will assess the teaching efficacy of a case vignettes based tutorial compared to no tutorial. In order to preserve a minimal blinding of participants, the comparator will be a basic passive teaching presentation on internet. The students will be randomized in two parallel groups. They will be evaluated on a final case vignette, and will be invited to follow the other intervention after evaluation. The allocation of participants will be done by a computerized randomization list, the sequence will be created by an independent statistician with a ratio 1: 1: 1. Since the students follow courses in different nursing institutes for each university which may have different teaching content and organization, the randomization will be stratified by nursing institute. Allocation concealment will be provided because only the statistician will have access to the randomization list. All the participants will receive an individual mail linking them to his group dedicated website. In order to preserve a minimal blinding of participants, the comparator will be a passive presentation and the participants will not be informed of the intervention evaluated and will have the opportunity to follow the other intervention after the evaluation. In parallel, both groups will follow normally their university courses.

Intervention: A case vignette is a clinical scenario based on clinical practice. It will ask a clinical problem the student will have to answer by reading a research article on a randomized clinical trial. Then he will have to answer questions about this article which are related to the major methodological points of a randomized trial. All these steps are available on a secure website.

Outcomes: The primary endpoint will be the student's knowledge of critical assessment of randomized controlled trials. It will be measured by students' score on an evaluation case vignette with multiple choice questionnaires. The secondary endpoints will be the quality perception and acceptance of the tutorial and if the tutorial has modified their perception of research participation. Responses will be ranged by a 5-point Likert scale.

Potential interests: This study takes place in the field of nursing universitary teaching. Nursing students have entered recently the universitary education system which enhances the nursing research, an emerging field in France.

The investigators hope that this complementary teaching tool will enhance the knowledge and participation of nurses in research.

Sample size expected: 506 participants.

Conditions

• New Educational Technologies

Interventions

OTHER

case vignette tutorial

The web tutorial will be composed of 4 case vignettes. A case vignette is a clinical scenario based on clinical practice. It will ask a clinical problem the student will have to answer by reading a research article on a randomized clinical trial. Then he will have to answer questions about this article which are related to the major methodological points of a randomized trial. All these steps are available on a secured website.

OTHER

passive web presentation on research regulation

The presentation will be a web-based voice commented video presentation on research regulation. It will allow to preserve a minimal blinding of participants, since the participants will not be informed of the intervention evaluated and will have the opportunity to follow the other intervention after the evaluation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Isabelle Boutron, MD, PhD · Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

• Philippe Ravaud, MD, Professor · Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-05-31

Primary Completion

2013-09-30

Completion

2013-09-30

Countries

• France

Study Locations