Using Gallery Walk Method to Enhance Learning Outcomes and Retention of Nurse Anesthesia Students in Iran: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Background: Gallery Walk (GW) is a student-centered educational method emphasizing team-based learning. In this approach, students actively participate in the learning process while the instructor is a facilitator. Objectives: This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of the GW method to the lecture method in teaching the topic of general anesthesia care during the induction phase. Methods: This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test-post-test approach involving 60 nurse anesthesia students at Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahvaz, Iran, in 2022. The data were collected through 30 four-choice questions assessing the knowledge of nurse anesthetists in the main stages of general anesthesia induction. After randomly assigning students into two homogeneous groups, an intervention group (GW) and a control group (lecture), the study investigated the effects of the two educational methods on learning outcomes and retention of general anesthesia care during the induction phase. This was done by comparing the mean scores of the students on three tests. Results: There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the mean scores of the immediate posttest (GW: 22.3 ± 0.47, lecture: 20.8 ± 1.01) compared to the pretest (GW: 15.13 ± 0.87, lecture: 14.73 ± 1) (P < 0.001). Additionally, there was a significant difference in the mean scores of the one-month posttest (GW: 23.37 ± 0.61, lecture: 17.33 ± 1.12) (P < 0.001) between the two groups. No significant difference was observed between the two groups regarding the mean scores on the immediate posttest (P = 0.186). Unlike the lecture group, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of immediate and delayed (one-month) posttests in the GW group (P = 0.16). Conclusions: The GW method not only enhances knowledge but also proves to be significantly more effective than the lecture method in retaining knowledge of general anesthesia care during the induction phase. Therefore, GW is recommended as an effective educational method for topics that require long-term retention.