Mobile Cooperation During the Clinical Practicum

The aim of this study is:

1. to evaluate the effectiveness of the nursing student - nurse teacher mobile cooperation (MC) during the clinical practicum,
2. to measure the usability of the mobile application.

The detailed research questions and hypothesis of this study are as follows:

1. What is the impact of MC on the nurse competence level of nursing students evaluated by work role, teaching-coaching and therapeutic interventions?

   H1: Nursing students' using MC will have a stronger change in the self-assessed level of nurse competence than those using standard cooperation (SC).

   H2: Nursing students' using MC will have higher level of nurse competence assessed by mentors after clinical practicum than those using SC.

2. What is the impact of MC on the clinical self-efficacy level of nursing students?

   H3: Nursing students' using mobile cooperation will have a stronger change in the self-assessed level of self-efficacy in clinical performance than those using standard cooperation.

3. What is the impact of mobile cooperation on the satisfaction level of nursing students evaluated by supervisory relationship, pedagogical atmosphere on the ward and the role of nurse teacher?

   H4: Nursing students' using mobile cooperation will have higher level of satisfaction with the supervisory relationship, pedagogical atmosphere on the ward and the role of nurse teacher after clinical practicum than those using standard cooperation.

4. What is the perceived usability of the mobile application by the intervention group?

The ultimate goal is to establish a modern, innovative solution for the nursing student - nurse teacher cooperation to support and facilitate the clinical learning of nursing students during the clinical practicum.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Learning
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mobile cooperation during the clinical practicum

Detailed Description

The study takes place in surgical and internal medicine wards and related specialties and subspecialties in five academic hospitals of one hospital district in Finland.The setting of the study have similar learning environments and mentors.

The sample size was determined with power analysis and the target sample size is 50 subjects per group i.e. 100 in total.

All eligible student participants are identified from the student group lists and the employment service database (Jobstep) of the polytechnic.

Students are recruited by means of direct invitation at the polytechnic. The recruitment is continued until number of eligible participants desired is achieved. The mentors from the wards, supervising the students during the study, are informed of the study and recruited by direct invitations by the researcher.

Students in the intervention group use MC during the 5 week clinical practicum, while participants in the control group use SC.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 108
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • Turku, Finland, 20014
    • University of Turku

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. pre-registration nursing student in one polytechnic undertaking nursing, midwifery or public health nursing degree programme,
2. at least second-year students,
3. entering a five week internal medicine or surgical clinical practicum at the participating hospital district,
4. entering the clinical practicum in spring term 2015,
5. access to a smartphone or tablet PC running iOS or Android OS.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. pre-registration nursing students undertaking critical care nursing degree program,
2. is unable to enter the clinical practicum in spring term 2015,
3. has not access to an appropriate smartphone or tablet PC,
4. is unwilling to provide consent.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mobile cooperation; Nursing student - nurse teacher mobile cooperation during the clinical practicum.	Behavioral: Mobile cooperation during the clinical practicum; The intervention include (1) use of mobile application in nursing student - nurse teacher (NT) cooperation during the 5 weeks clinical practicum and (2) training at the beginning of the clinical practicum in the functions of the mobile application by the researcher. Students in the intervention group use mobile application for documentation of the terms of hours, learning diaries, objectives as well as mid-point and end-evaluation during the clinical practicum. NT and students have direct access to documents in the mobile application and to wireless communication regardless of time and place. The actions in the mobile application are automatically saved and shared between student and the NT.
No Intervention: Standard cooperation; Nursing student - nurse teacher standard cooperation during the clinical practicum.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in students' nurse competence level measured with the NCS	Changes in students' self-assessed level of the nurse competence measured with the Nurse Competence Scale (NCS) at baseline (before the intervention) and week 5 (after the intervention). In addition, mentors assesses the nurse competence of students at 5 week with the NCS.	Baseline, week 5

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in students' clinical self-efficacy measured with the SECP	Changes in students' self-assessments of their own self-efficacy measured with the Self-Efficacy in Clinical Performance Scale at baseline (before the intervention) and week 5 (after the intervention).	Baseline, week 5
Students' satisfaction to the clinical learning environment measured with the CLES+T at ward level	Students' satisfaction with the supervisory relationship, pedagogical atmosphere on the ward and the role of nurse teacher is measured with the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher Scale (CLES Scale) at ward level	At the baseline
Students' satisfaction to the clinical learning environment measured with the CLES+T2 at student level	Students' satisfaction with the supervisory relationship, pedagogical atmosphere on the ward and the role of nurse teacher is measured with the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher Scale (CLES+T2 Scale) at student level	Week 5
Process evaluation by the students in the intervention group	The perceived usability of the mobile application is measured by the students with the System Usability Scale, SUS. The intervention is assessed by a structured process evaluation questionnaire at week 5 (after the intervention). The perceived effects and development propositions for the intervention are measured qualitatively at week 6 by a focus group interview (semi-structured questions) with students and at week 16 by student essays (open-ended questions).	Week 5, week 6, week 16

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Turku
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Camilla Strandell-Laine, PhD(c), University of Turku

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Strandell-Laine C, Saarikoski M, Loyttyniemi E, Meretoja R, Salminen L, Leino-Kilpi H. Effectiveness of mobile cooperation intervention on students' clinical learning outcomes: A randomized controlled trial. J Adv Nurs. 2018 Jun;74(6):1319-1331. doi: 10.1111/jan.13542. Epub 2018 Mar 6.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 2, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 15, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): December 18, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): December 18, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 15, 2015
• Last Verified: December 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mobile technology; Cooperation; Nursing student; Clinical practicum; Nurse teacher; Nurse competence
• Other Study ID Numbers: 45/2014

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO