KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES TOWARDS STATISTICS, AND SKILLS OF BIOSTATISTICS AMONG NURSING STUDENTS: A QUASI EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: Biostatistics is recognized as a powerful tool to interpret scientific results. There has been an increased use of statistical methods in recent decades, as documented in a wide range of medical journals. A proper understanding of biostatistics and clinical research among Nurses is also important for evidence-based medicine (EBM) practice, for designing medical research, to interpret, and report results obtained from these studies. Therefore, it is essential for medical researchers to understand biostatistics.

H₁: There is Positive association between pre-test Knowledge and Post- test knowledge Score of Biostatistics.

Methodology:  The Quasi Experimental study was conducted in the Begum Bilquees Sultana Institute of Nursing (BBS-ION) Nawabshah, Thar Institute of Nursing & Health Sciences (TINHAS) Umerkot and Rana Liaquat College of Nursing (RLCON) Khairpur Mir’s from 4^th may 2023 to 21^st July 2023. Total Sample size was 150 Depends on all the students of 3^rd Year 6^th semester students of BSN(Generic), Data was collected through a structured Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS©). A confidence level of 95% was used for the study. P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.  Paired sampled t test was applied for the association between pre & post results.  

Results: The recent conducted study showed that the pre knowledge regarding the biostatistics of participants showed that very poor 13(8.7%), poor 32(21.3%), Good 42(28%), very good 51(24%) and excellent 12(8%) and post test result showed that poor 2(1.3%), Good 3(2%), very Good 28(18.7%) and Excellent Knowledge 117 (78%), with highly significant p value (<0.001) between pre knowledge and post knowledge.

Conclusion: Biostatistics plays a central role in planning, conducting, analyzing the results and reporting of important data. Hence, a better understanding of biostatistics is necessary for clinical nurse as well as academicians. Attitudes towards biostatistics were negative among nursing students and knowledge was poor, particularly concerning bio statistical concepts. It is also contribution in terms of revising higher education nursing curricula by including frequently used statistical methods as a part of nursing research to enable nursing professionals.