Effectiveness of the flipped classroom methodology on the learning of evidence-based practice of nursing students: Quasi-experimental design

Background: International organizations recognize the importance of evidence-based practice (EBP) for nurses. The objective of teaching EBP in the Nursing degree is to train future nurses on this subject. Different teaching models exist for this, from less active traditional models to more active ones such as the flipped classroom.Objective: To compare the degree of EBP competence of undergraduate nursing students after an EBP course, through the application of a traditional methodology versus a flipped classroom methodology.Design: Quasi-experimental study of non-equivalent groups.Setting: The study was composed by a group of students who received training on EBP with the traditional model (face-to-face), and another intervention group with whom the flipped classroom model was utilized, using the online teaching platform EBP-eToolkit. Participants: The study was conducted with 4th-year Nursing degree students enrolled in the course evidence -based practice, in academic years 2019/20 and 2021/2022.Methods: Before and after the course, the students completed a questionnaire about EBP competence (EBP-COQ), and an objective test was given at the end of the year.Results: A sample of 152 students in the face-to-face group (control), and 143 students in the flipped classroom group (intervention) participated. The intervention group significantly improved its competence on attitude (p = 0.01, & eta;2 = 0.022), skills (p = 0.019, & eta;2 = 0.018), and global competence in EBP (p = 0.003, & eta;2 = 0.030), with respect to those who were taught using the traditional method. However, there were no significant differences in the impact on knowledge, neither through the self-report dimension of the EBP-COQ (p = 0.188) nor the final test score, control group 6.89 (SD: 1.35) and flipped classroom group 7.12 (SD: 1.53) (p = 0.206).Conclusions: The flipped classroom model is adequate for the teaching of EBP to undergraduate nursing students. It produced a slight increase in attitude, as well as in skills and global competence in EBP. Nevertheless, this increase was not significantly different from face-to-face learning in terms of impact on EBP knowledge.