Effectiveness of integrated teaching by patient vs traditional teaching on renal failure upon cognitive behaviour of nursing students

Patients can be effective and successful in teaching medical and nursing students about the particular disease condition they are suffering from with positive outcomes on students learning. The study was aimed to evaluate the Effectiveness of Integrated Teaching by Patient Vs Traditional Teaching on Renal Failure to Nursing Students. Methods: A true experimental study was conducted after obtaining ethical clearance, setting permission. The data was collected after obtaining consent from 100 nursing students who were randomly assigned equally into control and experimental group of the study. Structured questionnaire was used to assess the cognitive behaviour of nursing students regarding renal failure before and after the intervention. Traditional teaching method was done for both the groups, which was followed by first post test. Integrated teaching by patient was conducted for only experimental group of nursing students. After one week, post-test 2 was conducted for both the groups. Results: Study findings revealed that there was no significant difference in cognitive behaviour in pre-test between control group (M=10.06, SD=2.244) and experimental group of students (M=9.44, SD -2.711) with ‘t’ value 1.245 (p > 0.05). However, there was significant difference in cognitive behaviour of nursing students in post-test 2 scores between experimental group (M=19.7, SD=2.426) and control group (M=18.16, SD=2.90) with ‘t’ value of 3.024 (p< 0.05). It can be attributed to integrated teaching by patients was effective on improving the cognitive behaviour (Knowledge) especially in retention of memory and application, even after the lapse of time among nursing students. Conclusion: Involving patients as teachers has important educational benefits for learners. Real patients have valuable perspectives to enrich nursing students’ clinical learning and performance.