Evaluation of Undergraduate Nursing Students' Attitudes Toward a Mandatory Introductory Course in Statistics

• Activity Number: 264
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 5, 2013 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
• Author(s): Oluwagbohunmi Awosoga*+ and Bradley Hagen and Peter Kellett and Samuel Ofori Dei
• Companies: University of Lethbridge and University of Lethbridge and University of Lethbridge and University of Lethbridge
• Keywords: Students ; Attitudes ; Statistics ; Teaching ; Nursing ; Survey

Abstract

This study assess nursing students' attitudes towards a mandatory statistics course - including overall fear and anxiety, preferred learning and teaching styles, and the perceived utility and benefit of taking a statistics course - before and after taking an introductory course in applied statistics. A pre-experimental research design was adopted, by administering a survey to nursing students (at the beginning and end of the course) at a University in Western Canada. Participants included 104 nursing students, in the third year of their program, taking a course in statistics. Overall findings supported the effectiveness of the team-based learning approach including a significant 32% decrease in anxiousness related to statistics over the course, 41% decrease in fear of not understanding statistical concepts, and a non-significant 5% increase in students' rating of the worth of statistics. Student ratings of the strategies utilized within the course ("group work", "weekly quizzes", and "multiple choice exams") increased significantly. Students rated all teaching styles positively; patience, approachability, clear explanation and stating learning expectations increased significantly.