The Effect of Puzzles on Concept Learning in Nursing Students

The Effect of Crossword Puzzles on Nursing Students' Learning Concepts Related to Vital Signs: A Randomized Controlled Study

Vital signs are concepts that first-year nursing students learn for the first time. Students are afraid of making mistakes in the concepts they are trying to learn for the first time. Learning and measuring vital signs are among the duties, powers and responsibilities of the nurse. Therefore, it is important for students to understand and learn correctly. At this point, puzzles are of great importance as they make learning easier and entertaining. The entertaining education of puzzles reduces students' fear of mistakes regarding concepts. This study aimed to investigate the effect of puzzles on nursing students' learning concepts related to vital signs.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Education, Nursing; Students, Nursing
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: The effect of puzzles on students' course success

Detailed Description

Puzzles, which are among the active learning tools, are frequently preferred today because they make learning fun, are economical, improve problem-solving skills and offer understandable learning. Puzzles increase students' motivation and self-confidence by turning complex concepts into a hobby. In the literature, studies investigating the learning situation with puzzles have examined undergraduate students in different sciences. Even though there are different disciplines, undergraduate students' efforts to search for the right answer, their self-confidence in finding the right answer, and their involvement in the active learning process rather than passive memorization reveal the increase in their knowledge levels. It has been observed that the teaching method with puzzles not only facilitates learning, but also guides students to better recognize their knowledge gaps and weaknesses. Considering nursing education, it is obvious that teaching concepts encountered for the first time with puzzles by providing an active environment in the classroom will increase students' motivation and knowledge level. Despite research conducted with different disciplines in the literature, there are few studies examining the effect of puzzles on the level of learning concepts related to the nursing profession. In this research, the concepts of vital signs, which have an important place in both the student life and professional life of first-year nursing students, will be discussed. An active and fun environment will be provided to students with puzzles on the subjects of respiration, pulse and blood pressure, where students have difficulty in learning the conceptual structure. In this context, it is predicted that the education provided with puzzles will contribute positively to the knowledge level of the students.

A pre-test will be given to all groups before the theoretical lesson on vital signs. Afterwards, the students in the experimental group will apply puzzles for two weeks (12-27/11/2023). Afterwards, final tests will be performed. The work will continue until 10/12/2023.

Control group students will be educated only during the normal course. The research will be conducted with first-year students of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University Nursing Department.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 107
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Bilecik, Turkey, 11000
    • Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being a first year nursing student a
• Taking a course on vital signs for the first time
• Volunteering to participate in research.

Exclusion Criteria:

*Not volunteering to participate in the research

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Students' course success; The effect of puzzles on students' course success	Other: The effect of puzzles on students' course success; The effect of puzzles on students' course success
Experimental: Student scores; The effect of puzzles on students' course success	Other: The effect of puzzles on students' course success; The effect of puzzles on students' course success

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Student scores	Students' knowledge test successes will be seen.	5 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Bilecik Seyh Edebali Universitesi

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 20, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): January 10, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 4, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): December 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 13, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 12, 2024
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Nursing students; teaching; puzzles
• Other Study ID Numbers: Aysun Acun 2

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No