Effectiveness of experiential teaching method on the development of nursing students’ skill competence: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract Objective Skill competence is essential for nursing students and experiential teaching method has become increasingly popular in China's nursing education. To systematically evaluate the effects of experiential teaching method on the development of nursing students’ skill competence, and to provide evidence for nursing education. Methods The China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP, Wanfang Data, PubMed, and Web of Science databases were searched from their inception until November 28, 2019. We screened the studies according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the quality. Then, a meta-analysis was conducted. Results Totally 15 studies were included, and 1,633 nursing students were analyzed by Review Manager5.3 and Stata15.1 software. The results show that the experiential teaching method can significantly improve nursing students’ nursing skills such as training (SMD = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.95–1.16, P = 0.000), learning interest (ES = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.79–1.06), ability to analyze and solve problems (ES = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.55–0.94), ability to judge and innovative thinking (ES = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.77–1.25), abilities of understanding and perception (ES = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.34–0.83), and teaching satisfaction (ES = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.13–1.4). Conclusions The results suggest that the experiential teaching method is more effective for the nursing students’ skill competence than traditional teaching in China. However, due to the heterogeneity and bias risk, a large sample and high-quality studies are needed in future to confirm its effectiveness.