Evaluation of postgraduate critical care nursing students' attitudes to, and engagement with, Team-Based Learning: a descriptive study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate postgraduate critical care nursing students' attitudes to, and engagement with, Team-Based Learning (TBL).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY/DESIGN: A descriptive pre and post interventional design was used. Study data were collected by surveys and observation.

SETTING: University postgraduate critical care nursing programme.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Students' attitudes to learning within teams (Team Experience Questionnaire) and student engagement (observed and self-reports).

RESULTS: Twenty-eight of 32 students agreed to participate (87% response rate). There were significant changes in students' attitudes to learning within teams including increases in overall satisfaction with team experience, team impact on quality of learning, team impact on clinical reasoning ability and professional development. There was no significant increase in satisfaction with peer evaluation. Observation and survey results showed higher student engagement in TBL classes compared with standard lecturing.

CONCLUSION: Postgraduate critical care nursing students responded positively to the introduction of TBL and showed increased engagement with learning. In turn, these factors enhanced nurses' professional skills in teamwork, communication, problem solving and higher order critical thinking. Developing professional skills and advancing knowledge should be core to all critical care nursing education programmes to improve the quality and safety of patient care.