THE EFFECTS OF THE COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION OF COUNSELING ON KNOWLEDGE AND ANXIETY IN NURSING STUDENTS

Abstract

Objective:To determine the effects of the computer assisted instruction of counseling on knowledge of counseling and anxiety related to knowledge and counseling ability of nursing students.

Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental research. Participants were 77 fourth year nursing students studying at a nursing school in a university in Bangkok. These participants were purposively selected based on the study inclusion criteria and were divided into the control group (n=39) and the experimental group (n= 38). Both experimental and control groups attended an 1-hour counseling lecture in their classroom. Additionally, the experimental group was assigned to study counseling lesson by themselves via computer assisted instruction (CAI). The research instruments consisted of (1) the CAI of counseling, (2) examination to evaluate counseling knowledge, and (3) anxiety scale developed by the researcher. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, and independent t-test

Results: The different scores between before and after experiment of counseling knowledge,

anxiety about knowledge of counseling, anxiety about ability to perform counseling and the total score of anxiety in the experimental group had statistically significant difference from those in the control group at the .01 level.

            Conclusion: The results of this study suggested that nursing instructors may consider utilizing the computer assisted instruction of counseling to help increase knowledge of counseling and decrease anxiety related to knowledge and ability to perform counseling of nursing students before studying a psychiatric nursing practicum.