Online video in clinical skills education of oral medication administration for undergraduate student nurses: A mixed methods, prospective cohort study.

Summary Background Improvements in the safety of the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines are identified as a priority across international healthcare systems. It is therefore essential that higher education institutions play their part in helping to meet this patient safety objective. New developments in clinical skills education which are aligned to emerging educational theory are available, but evaluations and supportive evidence are limited. Objectives To evaluate the use of an online best practice exemplar as an adjunct to the clinical skills teaching of oral medication administration to undergraduate student nurses. Design Mixed-methods prospective cohort design. Settings and Participants Two intakes of undergraduate nursing students (n=168, n=154) undertaking a first year clinical skills based module at a British university. Methods The Control group received standard teaching using lectures and skills classes facilitated by experienced clinical skills lecturers. The Intervention group received the standard teaching and unlimited access to an online video clip of medication administration. Performance and satisfaction were measured using module assessment results and a satisfaction questionnaire. Qualitative data were gathered using focus groups (n=16, n=20). Results The Intervention group was significantly (p=0.021) more likely to pass the assessment and rate their satisfaction with the teaching significantly higher (p Conclusions An online video of a best practice exemplar as an adjunct to taught clinical skills sessions improves student assessment results and satisfaction ratings. The video was also reported to positively influence all themes identified in Classroom Learning and was perceived to promote the Transfer to Practice of teaching input.