Impact of Content Reinforcement of Muscular and Skeletal Systems on Knowledge Retention in Nursing Students

Abstract

Numerous studies have expressed concern over nursing students’ ability to retain the anatomical knowledge they gain in the first year to the subsequent years of nursing (Narnaware, Y. 2021). The present study assesses the impact of content reinforcement on the musculoskeletal systems over eight weeks. Results show that compared to week 1, repeating knowledge of the musculoskeletal systems resulted in organ- and week- specific retention over eight weeks of these systems. The skeletal system was seen to have two dramatic increases in knowledge retention, week 2 (+20%) and week 6 (+28.5), which can be the result of midterms and quizzes of the skeletal system around these times. The muscular system, however, was seen to have only three weeks of positive knowledge retention, with week 4 having a knowledge retention loss of 20.9%. This may be the result of other exams on varying body systems happening around this time, which leads to students studying other systems over the muscular system. This study demonstrates that content reinforcement should be used as one of the interventional strategies to improve knowledge retention in nursing students.

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Raj Narnaware & Melanie Neumeier