Assessment of the effect of mobile-assisted education regarding intramuscular injection by using the Instagram app

Background & Aim: The nursing profession should include information technology into nursing education curriculums to provide the necessary knowledge and skills. This study was done to evaluate the effect of mobile-assisted education regarding intramuscular injection on the ventrogluteal site by using the Instagram application and to nursing students. Methods & Materials: The study was designed experimental randomized controlled. Students participating in the study were divided into the Instagram app (n=69) and classroom teaching (n=69) groups by using simple random sampling. Mobile-assisted teaching methods trained the students in the Instagram app group by using Instagram. The students in the classroom teaching group were trained in the classroom. The data of the study was collected by Student Demographic Form, Knowledge Evaluation Form, and Skill Checklist. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test evaluated the mean scores of the dependent groups, and the Mann-Whitney U test evaluated the mean scores of the independent groups Results: While it was not found any statistically significant difference between two groups regarding the knowledge mean scores of the students in the Instagram app and classroom teaching groups immediately after and 15 days (p=0.445; p=0.111). The comparison of mean scores of skills of the students between the two groups was not revealed a statistically significant difference in the phase of preparation for IM injection (p=0.460), the phase of application (p=0.711), the ending phase of IM injection (p=0.581) and total mean scores of skill checklist (p=0.379). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that mobile assisted teaching by using the Instagram application was found to be as effective as classroom teaching for evaluating the knowledge and skills of nursing students.