Effectiveness of a teaching model in a first aid course: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of the Active Teaching Model for Critical Thinking in a first aid course for undergraduate nursing students. Method: a clinical, randomized, single blind and parallel trial, conducted at the Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil) in November 2016 with 102 undergraduate nursing students divided into experimental group and control group. In the experimental group, the Problem Based Learning methodology associated with the Active Teaching Model for Critical Thinking was used and, in the control group, only the Problem Based Learning methodology was employed to assess the difference in the average knowledge level of the groups, a test with 25 questions was applied before and after the educational intervention. To identify the effect of the measurement factors on the tests, the analysis of variance was used. Result: a significant interaction effect was observed (F1.100 =11.138; p=0.001), indicating that the experimental group showed an improvement in the mean value of the grades between the pre-and post-test, with a high magnitude (d=1.10) Conclusion: the teaching model was effective, being demonstrated by the performance of the experimental group, which presented significantly higher results in terms of knowledge. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials, number U1111-1176-5343.