Increasing the use of experimental methods in nursing and midwifery education research

• Published in: Nurse education in practice Vol. 70; p. 103674
• Main Authors: Watson, Roger, Tomietto, Marco, Mikkonen, Kristina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Scotland Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2023; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Between-subjects design; Bias; Clinical nursing; Complex interventions; Control Groups; Educational research; Educational Researchers; Experimental methods; Experiments; Inferiority; Intervention; Medical education; Midwifery; Midwifery education; Non-inferiority trials Pragmatic trials; Nursing; Nursing education; Obstetrics; Research methodology; Students; Validity; Non-inferiority trials Pragmatic trials; Nursing education; Midwifery education; Experiments; Complex interventions
• ISSN: 1471-5953; 1873-5223; 1873-5223
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nepr.2023.103674

To consider how more use could be made of experimental research in nursing and midwifery education. Much use has been made in nursing and midwifery educational research of pre- and post-, within-subjects research. While this has its place and has been a valuable design for testing educational interventions, there has been a distinct lack of more rigorous experimental designs. Discussion paper to consider the use of experimental designs in nursing and midwifery education research. A review of within-subjects designs, between-subjects designs and new approaches to experimental research such as pragmatic designs, non-inferiority designs and the framework offered by complex interventions. Recommendations for implementing experimental designs in nursing and midwifery education research have been drawn. Within-subjects designs have dominated experimental research in nursing and midwifery education. While suitable for preliminary studies, they should be augmented by more rigorous designs based on between-subjects designs. These do not have to be strictly randomised controlled trials and there are many reasons why these are hard to implement in nursing and midwifery education research. However, a range of alternatives is available.