Acquisition and Retention of Ecg Interpretation Skill Among Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Abstract

The literature reveals that ECG a vital diagnostic tool, offers inseparable information regarding the diagnosis, prediction of risk and prognosis. Nurses when equipped with knowledge to interpret ECG can aid into saving lives and prevent unwanted complications. Moreover, a virtual learning program which can cater the learning needs, providing the freedom of self-paced learning, plays significant role in improving the clinical judgement. Therefore, study aimed to assess the efficacy of virtual learning program in terms of acquisition and retention of ECG interpretation skill. Materials & Methods-Intervention (VLP) & Tools were developed and validated by the experts, tool included demographic profile, knowledge test. Method of data collection was self-reporting, study participants were given access to the virtual learning program (VLP) on first day and their demographic profile and pre test was administered from day two to day six, study participants learnt from the VLP on ECG interpretation and on seventh day post test was administered followed by time series post tests on 14th as well as 30th day. Results show that knowledge improved significantly (p value 2.694) on comparison with Tukey’s method, it was found that the knowledge increased in 1st post test and the trend of knowledge retention revealed that it increased in the first post test further increased with second posttest and decreased (yet higher than first posttest) scores. Comparison of the groups revealed that there was significant change in the knowledge skill with significant t value18.516 at 0.05 level. Thus, conclusion was drawn that the learning with VLP helped the students to gain knowledge and retain it for longer,