Child growth and development knowledge among senior nursing students

Background: Child and adolescents growth and development knowledge is an essential part of Pediatric Nursing and it is also part of the nine essentials in Nursing Education. Although students find challenge to master this knowledge, limited literatures documented the knowledge deficit regarding child growth and development among nursing students. The purpose of this study was to assess senior nursing students’ knowledge about normal child growth and development before and after Pediatric Nursing didactic and clinical courses. Methods: A prospective, descriptive, pre-post study was conducted using a convenience sample of 125 senior nursing students who were attending Pediatric Nursing courses during the academic year of 2010-2011. Students who attended and completed both didactic and clinical courses were eligible for the study. The students were given a questionnaire that was developed by the investigators at the beginning of the semester and at the end. Results: Students’ age ranged from 21 to 24 years old with mean 22.00 (SD=0.8). The mean knowledge score of the pre-test was 17.6 (SD=3.29) (total is 28), while the mean knowledge score for the post-test was 19.00 (SD=2.76) at the end of the semester. Although there was a significant difference in the mean scores between the pre and post testing (t = -3.04, p = 0.003), the students failed to achieve the 80% achievement rate in the post test. Conclusions: Students had weak knowledge scores regarding main concepts of child growth and development after the Pediatrics Courses. Creative strategies that improve students’ growth and development knowledge retention and demonstration are needed.