الفهرس 
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Abstract
Equipping nursing professional students for practice in the 21st century has increased the insistence to teach contextually relevant material in a pattern that enhances higher cognitive skills such as; problemsolving, critical thinking, decision making, and creativity. For this reason, the need for innovative teaching strategies that achieve these goals has been the main responsibility of the nursing faculty. Problem-based learning strategy is one of the innovative teaching strategies that have proven to be highly effective in this field of practice.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an active learning teaching method in which, complicated real-life problems are used as a vehicle to build up students’ acquisition of concepts and principles. It is opposed the passive, spoon-feeding learning based on teacher-designed instructional lectures common of the traditional curriculum. PBL is an instructional approach in which, learning is centered on issues or problems as contradicted to discrete, subject-related courses. In little groups, learners are displayed with patient scenarios or issues, produce learning issues related to what they ought to learn to understand the issue, engage in independent self-study, and return back to their groups to apply their new knowledge to the patient’s issue.
Problem-based learning strategy is announced and maintained for multiple reasons including: acquisition of subject matter knowledge, assisting students’ retention of knowledge, promoting students learning how to learn and encouraging them to integrate knowledge from different subjects, disciplines and sources. As well, it helps students having sense of belonging and connectedness, having fun, expressing the philosophy of learning that is student-centered and problem-focused in an operational form. It also increases students’ opportunities to interact with their teacher and peers, which further promotes their conflict resolution skills.
Aim of the study:The present study aimed to explore nursing students’ perspectives about problem-based learning strategy used in Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing course.
Research question: What are the perspectives of nursing students about problem-based learning strategy used in Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing Course?
Setting: This study was conducted at two scientific nursing departments at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University namely, Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing Department and Pediatric Nursing Department.
Subjects: The total number of students was 495 students.
Data of this study was obtained by using the following tool:
Nursing Students’ Problem-Based Learning Strategy Perspective Questionnaire:
This tool was developed by Othman and Shalaby (2014) and modified by the researcher after a thorough review of related literature to explore nursing students’ perspectives regarding the use of PBL strategy, Cerezo, (2000), Hollingshed, (2005), &Shehata, (2014).
It consists of five parts:
Part I: Nursing students’ personal and academic data:
This part included 4 items about nursing students’ personal and academic data which are: age, gender, academic semester, and last GPA.
Part II: Nursing students’ perspectives about PBL experience:
This part included 4 questions related to PBL experience which are; did you receive adequate training for using PBL strategy, did you receive constructive feedback about student’s own performance, was PBL an enjoyable strategy, and did you satisfied with your performance?
Part III: Nursing students’ perspectives about their benefits of using PBL strategy:
This part included 5 categories/domains related to exploring nursing students’ perspectives about the benefits they have achieved after using PBL strategy. These domains include: construction of professional knowledge (4 items), development of problem-solving skills (5 items), development of self-directed learning skills (11 items), enhancement of motivation (4 items), and Promotion of effective group collaboration (8 items).The benefits achieved were measured on 4-point-Likert scale and the degree of agreement was strongly agree (4), agree (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1).
Part IV: Students’ perspective about PBL sessions:
This part included (15) items related to exploring nursing students’ perspective regarding preparation and conduction of PBL sessions such as; preparation of adequately ventilated and lightened environment as well as a comfortable learning climate, providing timely constructive feedback, helping to find appropriate resources, conflict resolution, and designing groups fairly.It was measured on 4-point-Likert scale and the degree of agreement ranged from: never (1), sometimes (2), mostly (3), and always (4).
Part V: Barriers of using problem-based learning strategy:
This part included (12) items related to exploring nursing students’ perspective regarding barriers of using problem-based learning strategy such as; lack of information about PBL and its technique, lack of commitment of students to their roles, lack of direction of group team leader, heavy workload, difficulties in information search. The barriers were measured on 4-point-Likert scale and the degree of agreement ranged from: never (1), sometimes (3), mostly (2), and always (4).This part included a question related to whether or not they faced any other barriers and if there, the student will mention them. Another open-ended question related to their suggestions to overcome these barriers.
Methods:
- The tool was submitted to a jury of 7 experts in the related field to determine its applicability and content validity.
- The tool was tested for reliability by using Cronbach’s Alpha test, it was reliable and coefficient values for the tool parts
- A pilot study was carried out on 10%of study sample (45 students) to test the clarity and applicability of the tool and they were excluded from the sample.
- Data was collected from students enrolled in the Obstetric and Gynecological nursing department in the academic year 2018-2019.
- The questionnaire was distributed to the students at the end of their clinical day and the researcher was available at the time of data collection to clarify any of students’ inquiries.
The main findings of the study were:
Findings related to students’ perspective about PBL strategy:
- Overall students’ perspective toward the problem-based learning strategy was positive among more than three quarters of the study.
- The majority of nursing students have a positive perspective toward the benefits of PBL strategy regarding: construction of professional knowledge, development of problem-solving skills, development of self-directed learning, enhancement of motivation, and promotion of effective group collaboration.
- Nearly more than half (52.9%) of the students have positive perspectives toward the preparation and conduction of PBL session.
- More than half of the students have a negative perspective toward the barriers of PBL strategy.
Findings related tochallenges and suggestions:
- Regarding students’ opinions about challenges of PBL application in the future, students reported that there was a lack of teamwork, unfairness in grading and large content, lack of computer skills, lack of presentation skills and high cost of internet use and paper work.
- Concerning suggestions to overcome challenges for future application of PBL, the students suggested providing adequate time for PBL sessions, providing adequate sources of information and providing adequate facilities, providing motivation, reducing stress on the students, providing a more comfortable environment, and encouraging teamwork.
Findings related to relationships:
- There was a statistically significant relationship between the nursing students’ overall perspectives about PBL strategy and their age and academic semester (0.028, 0.003) respectively.
- There was a statistically significant relationship between nursing students’ total perspectives about the benefits of PBL and their personal and academic characteristics regarding sex, academic semester and last GPA (0.020, 0.000, 0.036) respectively.
- There was a statistically significant relationship between the nursing students’ total perspectives about the preparation and conduction of PBL sessions and their age (0.034).
- There was a statistically significant relationship between the nursing students’ total perspectives about barriers of PBL and their academic semester (0.004).
from the current study it can be concluded that:
The problem-based learning strategy is a valuable teaching method helped in achieving students’ satisfaction regarding improving their skills such as the ability to: construct professional knowledge, solve problems, collaborate within a group, being self-directed learner, being intrinsically motivated to learn. The overall students’ perspective toward the problem-based learning strategy was positive. The results provide evidence to support the integration of PBL as an effective teaching strategy in undergraduate obstetric and gynecological nursing practice.
Based on the findings of the current study, it can be recommended that:
Recommendations for the nursing education:
- Creating a supportive, motivating, and well-prepared environment are considered the most important preparations for PBL strategy.
- There has to be good timeframe for small group work and information search without increasing load on students.
- Providing a well-fed library with updated references and internet services.
Recommendations for the nursing faculty:
- Problem-based learning strategy should be considered as a significant teaching method to be applied in different courses at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University.
- Developing a standardized guide about the PBL strategy to be distributed to the nurse educator and the students.
Recommendations for further studies:
- A study to determine the nurse educators’ perspectives about problem-based learning strategy.
- Studies to determine the effect of PBL strategy on academic achievement, critical thinking, and self-esteem.
- A study to determine the effect of online PBL to enhance low achiever students’ academic achievement.