The Effect of Employing Clinical Education Associate Model on Clinical Learning of Nursing Students

Introduction: In order to resolve the existing problems of clinical education such as low-level proficiency of nursing graduates in achieving essential competencies and skills at the end of nursing education and the necessity of employing new methods of education for promoting the quality of clinical education, this study was performed to investigate the effect of clinical education associate on nursing students' learning compared to contemporary method. Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 60 students of nursing school passing clinical medical surgical course were selected along an academic semester through census and using simple randomization. They were divided into two groups. The first group was taught by clinical education associate method and the second one experiences the contemporary technique. After two weeks of learning, the students' cognitive and skill areas were evaluated using questionnaire and checklist. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using independent t test, paired t, Fisher, and Chi². Results: Both methods were effective in promoting students' learning area. But the mean difference of students' skills in two groups was not significant while a statistically significant difference was observed in cognitive learning of student. Conclusion: The effect of these two models on learning clinical skills in students was similar but cognitive learning area in group 2 (contemporary method) was higher than the group of clinical associate model. It seems that it is more effective to use contemporary model. According to the dissimilarity of the findings of this study with that of similar studies, it is recommended to search for more evidences in bigger samples and different wards.