Roles of Two Learning Methods in the Perceived Competence of Surgery and Quality of Teaching: A Quasi-experimental Study among Operating Room Nursing Students.

Introduction: Nowadays, Clinical courses are meticulously structured to give students essential opportunities to elevate their professional qualifications,so that the patients' safety is protected and their conditions improve. Given the many challenges in the clinical environment of the operating room, this study was conducted to compare the impact of team-based and task-based learning methods in the clinical settings on the perceived competence of surgery and the quality of training from the operating room nursing students' point of view.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on fifty 5 semester operating room technology students at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in 2023. In this study, students were selected using the convenience sampling method and placed in two educational groups (team-based and task-based) of 25 subjects using the matching method. After implementing the training process in the operating room setting, the data related to the study were collected using the valid questionnaires of perceived competence in surgery (Cronbach's alpha=0.86) and quality of education (Cronbach's alpha=0.94). Also, the data analysis was conducted at the descriptive and inferential (included independent t-test and analysis of covariance) statistics level using SPSS version 16 software.

Results: Findings showed that the mean clinical training quality score was significantly higher in the team-based learning group than in the other group (P=0.014). Also, after the median intervention, the perceived competence score of surgery was higher in the task-based learning group than in the team-based group, and the difference in the average change of the competence score between the two groups was statistically significant (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the results, it is suggested that a task-based learning method should be used for the clinical instructors to increase level of the perceived competence of the surgery among operating roon nursing students.