Effects of guided design and lecture teaching strategies on knowledge recall and on problem-solving performance of student nurses.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of guided design and lecture teaching strategies on the clinical problem-solving performance of first quarter student nurses. The guided design treatment (written simulations and small group interaction) was selected especially with a view of developing new approaches to teaching nursing diagnosis. A total of 50 students, enrolled in Fundamentals of Nursing, were randomly assigned to two treatment groups: guided design and lecture. Each group received 10 hours of instruction. Treatment groups remained intact for 6 weeks of clinical practice following instruction. Recall knowledge of the nursing process was measured by an objective examination, and performance in problem solving was measured through the use of a care plan evaluation tool. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and t-tests. Students taught by guided design scored significantly higher than those taught by lecture in preparing a patient care plan for an actual patient and for a simulated patient. Knowledge of the nursing process as tested by an objective examination was not significantly different for the two treatment groups.