The Effect of Computer Assisted Instruction and Demonstration on Learning Vital Signs Measurement in Nursing Students

Introduction: Computer Assisted Instruction has been used widely in nursing and medical education. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of computer assisted instruction in comparison with demonstra-tion on learning vital signs measurement in nursing students. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, all first year nursing students in nursing school of Tabriz (n=30), participated in a pretest assessing their knowledge in measuring vital signs, and based on the achieved scores, were divided randomly into two control and experiment groups (15 subjects in each group). The experiment group received education on vital signs measurement procedure using computer assisted instruction in three sessions. Each session lasted for 2 hours and there was a week interval between the sess-ions. The control group received education under almost similar circumstances, using demonstration method. In the fourth session, all the students of both groups took the knowledge post-test with the same questions as the pretest. The comparisons were made using Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests by SPSS software. Results: Mean and standard deviation of achieved scores on pre-test and post-test for experiment group were 19.8±4.3 and 34.73±3.03, and for control group they were 22±5.8 and 33.73±4.97, respectively. Although there was a significant improvement in post-test scores compared with pre-test in both groups, no significant difference was observed between the post-test scores of the two groups. Conclusion: Computer assisted instruction as an independent educational method, can improve learning in cognitive domain in nursing students the same as demonstration method. Therefore, computer assisted instruc-tion can be used for the enrichment of nursing education programs.