the effect of employing clinical education associate model on clinical learning of nursing students

the effect of employing clinical education associate model on clinical learning of nursing students mohammadpour y* , khalilzadeh h , habibzadezadeh h , ahangarzadeh rezaee s , rasooli d received: 22 april, 2010 accepted: 27 july, 2010 abstract background & aims: clinical teaching associate model enhances participation and collaboration between health care workers and instructors. it is essential 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. on the other hand, the necessity of employing new methods of education for promoting the quality of clinical education is obvious. this study was performed to investigate the effects of clinical education associate model on nursing students' learning compared with the present methods. materials & methods: in a quasi-experimental study, 30 students of nursing school were selected randomly. they were divided into two groups. the first group was taught by clinical education associate model and the second one by the current method. after two weeks of learning, the students' skill areas were evaluated using a questionnaire and checklist. the data were analyzed by spss software using independent t-test, paired t, fisher, and chi square test. results: this study found differences between the case and control groups considering clinical skills between satisfaction of clinical nurses’ about students learning and satisfaction of nursing students from educators of both groups. conclusion: students’ clinical learning increased during clinical teaching associate method. it is recommended to increase students’ participation by applying active teaching methods providing opportunity for better learning. keywords: clinical education, clinical education associate model, learning, nursing education addresses: urmia nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran. tel :( +98) 4412752378 email: [email protected]