Traditional teaching method versus simulation-based teaching method in the prevention of medication errors among nursing students

Introduction and aim. The effective and safe administration of medication is the responsibility of every health care provider involved in patient care. One of the biggest problems with nursing education is the gap between theory and practice, which pave ways for medication errors to occur at any level of the medication administration process. This can be rectified by using an efficient teaching strategy that harmoniously blends nursing theory and practical skills. the aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the traditional teaching method versus simulation-based teaching method on level of knowledge, attitude, and practice on prevention of medication errors among nursing students in selected colleges, Puducherry. Material and methods. The research approach and design used for the study were quantitative approach and quasi-experi mental pre and post-test control group design respectively. The study settings were selected 4 nursing colleges in Puducherry. The sample size was 100 (50 in experimental group I and 50 in experimental group II) which was selected by using simple ran dom and stratified sampling technique. pre-test was done to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice on preven tion of medication error for both experimental groups utilizing the self-administered knowledge, attitude questionnaire and checklist. The experimental group I received traditional teaching method and experimental group II received simulation-based teaching method. Post-test was done after one week using the same tool. Results. The study results revealed that out of 100 nursing students, majority 35 (70%) and 38 (76%) of the nursing students were in the age group of 20–21 years, 40 (80%) and 39 (78%) of them were female, 50 (100%) and 41 (82%) of them were staying as day scholars, 40 (80%) and 41 (82%) had one attempt to clear the pharmacology subject in the experimental group I and II respectively. The level of knowledge, attitude, practice showed a statistically significance difference at p<0.05 between the pre and post-test within the experimental group I and II respectively. The effective mean scores of knowledge, attitude and practice showed a statistically significance difference at p<0.05 between the experimental group I and II respectively, revealed that the simulation-based teaching method was more effective over the traditional teaching method. There was a significant positive correlation at p<0.05 exist between the level of knowledge and attitude, knowledge and practice in the experimental group I. The association between the post-test level of attitude and the gender variable showed a statistically significant at p<0.05 in the experimental group II. Conclusion. The study concluded that the simulation-based teaching method was effective which can be utilized as a means to educate the nursing students during their academic performance.