The Impact of Content Reinforcement on Anatomical Knowledge Retention of Cardiovascular and Lymphatic Systems in Nursing Students

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that medical and allied health students experience difficulty transferring the anatomical knowledge they gain in the first year to the subsequent years of their disciplines (Narnaware and Neumeier, 2020, Narnaware, Y. 2021a). However, few studies focus on nursing students (Narnaware and Neumeier, 2019a,b). As an intervention strategy, and an attempt to improve long-term knowledge retention, the present study demonstrates that repeated evaluation of the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems over eight weeks can significantly increase anatomical knowledge retention. The retention measure is compared to the evaluation of the same organ systems in the first week. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05, where week three for the lymphatic system (+16.8%) and week four for the cardiovascular system (+22.5%) both saw the most significant increase in retention among nursing students. This increase likely occurred because of the approaching midterm in week four of this study. However, after the midterm, the retention for the cardiovascular system dropped to (+14.15) while the lymphatic system dropped to (+4.6%). However, despite these fluctuations that occurred, our results which always remained positive throughout the study, show that content reinforcement can be an effective interventional strategy to improve long-term anatomical knowledge retention in nursing students.

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Raj Narnaware & Melanie Neumeier