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

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p><em>Aim:</em> To consider how more use could be made of experimental research in nursing and midwifery education.</p><p><em>Background:</em> 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.</p><p><em>Design:</em> Discussion paper to consider the use of experimental designs in nursing and midwifery education research.</p><p><em>Methods:</em> 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.</p><p><em>Results:</em> Recommendations for implementing experimental designs in nursing and midwifery education research have been drawn.</p><p><em>Conclusions:</em> 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.</p></div>