THE EFFECT OF OUTCOME – BASED EDUCATION IN CLINICAL COMPETENCY NURSE TRAINING IN TABRIZ NURSING AND MIDWIFERY FACULTY

Promoting clinical education quality requires use of effective methods.
Outcome-based education (OBE) is an educational reform movement that has influenced many
countries in recent years. Despite the global acceptance of outcome-based education, the research
documents are fairly rare about its effects on students' competency. The aim of this study was to
investigate the effect of outcome-based education program on clinical competency (cognitive skills
and behaviors skill) of nursing students on hemodialysis ward.
Materials & Methods: In a quasi-experimental study using pre-test and post-test with two group
design, 26 nursing students were selected through census sampling method and placed randomly in 2
control and 2 experiment groups, each group containing 6 to 7 people. After taking the cognitive skills
pre-tests, control group received traditional education and experiment group went under clinical
education using outcome-based education program for 9 days. As the final step, the post-test cognitive
skills were held and behaviors skill checklist were observed. The data were analyzed using SPSS
software using Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney tests and fisher exact test.
Results: The outcome-based education has been effective in promoting the cognitive and behavioral
skills of students. The mean scores significantly differed before and after participating in outcomebased education and the clinical competency of nursing students in outcome-based education groups
differed significantly from traditional groups.
Conclusion: The effect of outcome-based education program on competency of nursing students was
more than the traditional methods. Therefore, it is recommended to use outcome-based education in
clinical education.