The effects of using a flipped classroom pedagogy in nursing anesthesia education: A program evaluation

Background: The flipped classroom (FC) pedagogy improves undergraduate student proficiency and satisfaction. However, its effectiveness has not been demonstrated in nursing anesthesia education. Objectives: Pre- and post-FC tests and course evaluations were retrospectively compared to determine if FC was an effective pedagogy for a nursing anesthesia program (NAP). Methods: The design of the study was a retrospective program evaluation. Two groups were compared with 59 students in the pre-FC group taught via traditional lecture and 61 students in the post-FC group taught with FC. Answers to the same 167 test questions were compared using an independent t-test and five course evaluation questions were statistically compared using NPAR1WAY procedure with the Wilcoxon option to determine if significant differences existed between the two nursing anesthesia student cohorts. Results: The post-FC students exhibited a significant 4 % increase in test scores and expressed increased satisfaction compared to their pre-FC counterparts. Conclusions: This retrospective program evaluation showed that student proficiency and satisfaction improved between the groups after changing to the FC pedagogy. However, research is needed to determine the true value of using FC in nursing anesthesia education. Implications for an International Audience: The flipped classroom model can be beneficial in graduate nursing education with our ever-changing student population.