Abstract

Aim.The aim of this study was to compare the effect of education through lecture and multimedia methods on knowledge, attitude, and performance of cardiac care nurses about temporary pacemaker care.

Background.Cardiac dysrhythmias are among the most common cardiovascular disorders. Temporary pacemaker insertion is a treatment or prevention method for cardiac dysrhythmia. Nurses are the main group to provide the care for patients with temporary pacemaker, so it is necessary to educate them in an effective and efficient way.

Method.This was an experimental study conducted in 2015 on 52 cardiac care nurses working in ShaheedRajaei cardiovascular center. All 52 nurses were randomly divided in 2 groups of education through lecture and multimedia. The level of nurses' knowledge, attitude and performance was evaluated before and three weeks after education and the effect of education was examined using Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test through SPSS version 22.

Findings.Before intervention, the median and interquartile range of knowledge levels for lecture and mul-timedia groups were 12.5 (10-14) and 11 (9-12), respectively, and after that, they increased to 17 (15- 19) and 17 (13- 19). The median and interquartile range of performance levels for lecture and multimedia groups changed from 29 (26- 30) and 30 (26- 31) to 34 (32- 35) and 34 (32- 35), respectively. The knowledge and performance levels increased in both methods. But there was no statistically significant difference between these two methods. Before intervention, the median and interquartile range of attitude levels for lecture and multimedia groups were 62.5 (60-64) and 64 (63-66) and after that, they changed to 64 (60-64) and 63 (61-64), showing that intervention has no effect on attitude level in any of these two groups.

Conclusion.There is no difference between the effectiveness of education through two methods of lecture and multimedia software on cardiac care nurses' knowledge, attitude and performance. In the other words, multimedia software method is as effective as lecture method. Education using multimedia software can be considered as a proper method for increasing demand in staff education. Proper infrastructure and optimal training programs are prerequisites to effectiveness of education through multimedia software method.