Development and psychometrics of script concordance test (SCT) in midwifery.

Background: Clinical reasoning plays an important role in the accurate diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Script Concordance test (SCT) is one of the tools that assess clinical reasoning skill. This study was conducted to determine the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity of SCT in assessing final lessons and gynecology exams of undergraduate midwifery students. Methods: At first, 20 clinical scenarios followed by 3 questions were designed by 2 experienced midwives. Then, after examining the content validity, 15 scenarios were selected. The test was used for 55 midwifery students. The correlation of SCT results with grade point average (GPA) was measured. To evaluate the concurrent validity of SCT, the correlation between SCT scores and the final exam of the gynecology course was measured. To measure predictive validity, the correlation of SCT scores with comprehensive exams of midwifery was calculated. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and coefficient Cronbach's alpha were used for analysis. The test's item difficulty level (IDL) and item discriminative index (IDI) were determined using Whitney and Sabers' method. Results: The internal reliability of the test (calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient) was 0.74. All questions were positively correlated with the total score. The highest correlation coefficient was related to GPA and comprehensive test with the score of 0.91. The correlation coefficient between SCT and the final test (concurrent validity) was 0.654, and the correlation coefficient between SCT and comprehensive test (predictive validity) was 0.721. The range of item discriminative index and item difficulty level in this exam was 0.39-0.59 and 0.32-0.66, respectively. Conclusion: SCT shows a relatively high internal validity and can predict the success rate of students in the comprehensive exams of midwifery. Also, it showed a high concurrent validity in the final test of gynecology course. This test could be a good alternative for formative and summative tests of clinical courses.

Explaining the Relationship between Moral Intelligence and Professional Self-Concept with the Competency of Nursing students in Providing Spiritual Care to Promote Nursing Education.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Several factors are involved in obtaining the competence of providing spiritual care in nursing students. The purpose of this study was to explain the relationship between moral intelligence and the professional self-concept with the competency of the nursing students in providing spiritual care to promote nursing education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was descriptive-analytics and the participants were the 7th and 8th semester nursing students of the processing district 6 of the medical sciences universities. The data were collected using questionnaires "Nursing student competencies for providing spiritual care," "Nursing professional self-concept" and "Moral intelligence" questionnaire and analysed using correlation and regression tests. RESULTS: The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the moral intelligence and the students competency in providing spiritual care (r = 0.24, P < 0.001), while this relationship was not significant for the professional self-concept (r = 0.045). Furthermore, based on the results of multiple regression analysis, the moral intelligence (B = 0.28, P = 0.001), gender (B = -4.23, P = 0.048), place of living (B = 10.59, P = 0.046), and adherence to religion (B = -11.82, P = 0.002) were the predictors of students' competency in providing the spiritual care. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, it is suggested that by applying strategies to strengthen the moral intelligence of the students, such as holding-related workshops as well as reinforcing religiosity, the student's competency in providing the spiritual care to the patients is reinforced.

Comparing the effects of two educational methods of intravenous drug rate calculations on rapid and sustained learning of nursing students: formula method and dimensional analysis method.

Accurate calculations of flow rate of intravenous medication are crucial to safe patient care. Flow rate of these medications can be calculated using either the formula or dimensional analysis method. However, few studies have assessed the effectiveness of this teaching method or any other method of calculating drug dosages. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of formula and dimensional analysis educational methods of intravenous drug rate calculations on nursing students' rapid and sustained learning. This was an experimental study in which 42s year nursing students participated. They were divided randomly into two groups, control and experimental and the drug calculating skills were taught to them through formula method (control group) and dimensional analysis method (experimental group), respectively. Before the education, immediately, and three months after the teaching intervention, the students' skills were examined using a drug calculation test. The results showed that no significant difference between the two groups in pre-test and post-test 1 scores (P>0.05), but did show a significant difference between the two groups in post-test 2 scores (P<0.05). The mean of the scores differences of pre-test and post-test 2 were 9.8+/-3.34 and 12.85+/-3.07 in formula method group and dimensional analysis group, respectively, which showed significant difference between two groups. This study showed that immediate post education intervention learning was significantly better in both groups, but, in the dimensional analysis method group, the sustained learning rate was significantly better than in the formula method group.