Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge regarding Mental Retardation and Care of Mentally Retarded Children among 1st Bsc. Nursing students studying at Nursing College at Mangaluru

Abstract

Mental Retardation is a condition in which the intelligence function is under average, which began during the developmental period. Children with mentally retarded have limited mental function, communication skills, ability to maintain themselves and social skills. These conditions impact the mothers they responsible to train children’s ability to be independent. The purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge regarding topic mental retardation. In the present investigation was aimed to assess the existing level of knowledge regarding mental retardation, to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme, to find the association between the knowledge scores regarding mental retardation among Nursing college students and their selected demographic variables among 1st year B.Sc. Nursing students at Mangalore. The research design used in the study was pre – experimental one group pre-test post-test and non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to draw sample. The data was collected from 80 nursing students using the structured interview schedule. STP was conducted and post-test was administered after 7days using the same structured interview schedule to find out the effectiveness of STP. The results revealed that the overall mean percentage knowledge score in the pre-test and post-test were 36.72% and 77.38% respectively. Enhancement mean percentage knowledge score was found to be 40.66%. The statistical paired ‘t’ test indicates that enhancement in the mean percentage knowledge score was found to be significant at 0.05 level for all the aspects under study. The association found to be Partly significant between pre-test knowledge scores & selected socio demographic variables at 0.05 levels (P< 0.05). The study findings suggested that STP is an effective instructional method in improving the knowledge of 1st BSc. Nursing students.