In order to improve nursing education, various teaching methods have been introduced to assist students in gaining knowledge, skills and attitudes that are relevant for nursing practice. The use of simulation-based learning contributes to the development of students' sense of safety when they perform various tasks [7]. The skill laboratory functions as a transitional setting between a classroom and clinical venues [8].
The implementation of active learning methods into the study process might result in students' improved motivation for learning, encourage their critical thinking skills and independent learning [9]. Rather than continuing with employing traditional teacher-centered educational approaches, faculties should introduce an active student-centered learning environment since creating learning experiences that encourage reflection, knowledge building, problem-solving, inquiry, and critical thinking are highly significant [10].
Peyton's Four-Step Approach is a learning method that comprises four steps and is highly effective in the learning process of nursing interventions. The first step is demonstration, in which the teacher demonstrates the intervention at their normal pace without giving any additional verbal explanations. The second step is deconstruction, in which the teacher performs the intervention by giving detailed descriptions of all the phases of the intervention. In the third step referred to as comprehension, the teacher performs the intervention according to the student's instructions of each step of the intervention. In the final, fourth step called intervention, students perform the intervention by themselves without the help of the teacher [11]. In the research on the effectiveness of the method, the authors found that the Peyton's Four-Step Approach method enables students' active involvement in the process of learning about nursing intervention [12]. The process of self-explanation, which Peyton’s Four-Step Approach contains when a student is thinking aloud, enables an improved learning process and the development of critical thinking skills [13].
The Mind Mapping method is an excellent pedagogical tool used to help students achieve positive learning outcomes [14] that may be successfully implemented in the education process as it ensures a creative environment and is an effective tool for teachers, mentors, students and researchers [15]. The Mind Mapping method encourages students to obtain relevant information and develops critical thinking skills, which in turn, has positive effects on the provision of safe health care for patients [16]. There are several reasons why using the Mind Mapping method in learning and teaching is recommended. Firstly, there is no long text. Also, it enables learning through synthesizing, as well as clarification and better reorganization of ideas. Furthermore, it assists with revision, encourages visualization of the content that had been learnt before, enables cooperation via studying in groups, which has positive consequences for everybody involved, and finally, mind maps that are submitted to the group result in a better experience because more participants are involved, which produces more ideas and stimulates the use of critical thinking skills [17–19].
A guided discussion is also quite significant in teaching Nursing students as it enables very authentic simulations of reality since a mentor asks students to critically evaluate their knowledge and skills that they had demonstrated while performing the scenario. Despite much research conducted on educating with simulation, the guided discussion has not yet been sufficiently defined [20]. The use of scenarios with debriefing constitutes a strategy facilitating the teaching-learning process in the undergraduate nursing course [21].
The assessment of clinical skills is also highly significant in nursing education. Therefore, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) may be considered to be a sound assessment tool whose objective is the assessment of nursing students’ clinical competences in a safe and controlled environment, which enables simple assessment of the knowledge and performance of clinical skills that are important in nursing practice. Also, the assessment tool may serve to better prepare students for their profession [22, 7].
A higher education teacher is one of the key factors for a nursing student to be successful in their studies [23], so teachers should be familiar with effective teaching methods [24]. A teacher's primary task is to ensure a creative environment and a learning path that engages a student [25]. A suitable learning method may encourage nursing students to learn, improve students’ communication, and motivate and inform them about effective learning [26].
Aim of the study
After conducting the educational module Clinical skills of mentors as part of the Strengthening Nursing in Bosnia and Herzegovina Project, our aim was to obtain naturalistic data from nurse educators regarding the use and effects of introducing active learning methods (Peyton's Four-Step Approach, Mind Mapping, Debriefing and Objective Structured Clinical Examination methods) in the study process of Nursing students.