Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated teaching involving patients as teachers' vs. traditional teaching upon the cognitive behaviour of nursing students.
Design and methods: Experimental study with pre-test and post-test control design was selected. Patients suffering from chronic renal failure (CRF) volunteered to teach the students. The data were collected from 100 nursing students who were randomly assigned equally into control and experimental group. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the cognitive behaviour of nursing students regarding CRF, before and after the intervention. The traditional teaching method was used to teach about CRF for both groups, which was followed by first post-test. Integrated teaching by patients on CRF was conducted for only an experimental group of nursing students. After one week, post-test 2 was conducted for both groups.
Findings: There was no significant difference in pre-test cognitive behaviour between the control group (M=09.40, SD=2.123) and an experimental group of students (M=9.44, SD=2.611) with P>0.05. However, there was a significant difference in post-test 2 cognitive behaviour between the experimental group (M=19.7, SD=2.426) and control group (M=16.16, SD=2.90) of nursing students with p< 0.05.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that involving patients as teachers in classroom teaching is an effective method for better learning experiences of nursing students.