Physiological Knowledge Retention in Second-Year Bachelor of Science & Psychiatric Nursing Students

Abstract

There is growing concern that nursing, medical and allied health students do not retain enough bioscience knowledge to apply it confidently and successfully in future nursing years and clinical (Doomernik et al., 2017). Numerous evidence now shows that knowledge retention is impacted by many factors, including admission criteria, teaching hours (Narnaware, Y. 2021), age, sex, ethnicity, prior knowledge of science/biology, a gap between high school and university, and health care discipline (Narnaware, Y. 2021). Understanding that discipline choice potentially impacts knowledge retention, this study aimed to determine the overall difference in physiological knowledge retention between second-year BScN and psychiatric nursing program students. The mean score of questions from all organ systems in year one was 81.16 ± 10.6 (SD). Comparing that score to matched test items in year two, there is a significant decrease in the overall mean score from 81.17 + 10.6 (SD) to 57.86 ± 11.8 (SD) (P<0.01) in BScN students and 50.00 + 6.06 (SD) (P<0.001) in psychiatric nursing students. Compared to year 1, organ-specific knowledge retention levels in the second year varied between BScN and psychiatric nursing students and will be discussed in the poster. Overall, the second-year BScN students had better knowledge retention than psychiatric nursing students. This study will help to target more robust interventional strategies to improve knowledge retention in psychiatric nursing students.

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Raj Narnaware & Melanie Neumeier