effect of problem-based learning on communication skills of undergraduate nursing students

Aims: the present study aimed to investigate the effects of problem based learning strategies on communication skills in pediatric nursing learning among undergraduate nursing students.materials & methods: this quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control group posttest-only design was conducted on undergraduate nursing students in kohgiluyeh-boyer ahmad province. the sampling method was multistage cluster sampling. the total sample size was 95 in different classes of traditional problem based learning (tpbl=30), hybrid problem based learning (hpbl=30), and conventional teaching and learning (cotl=35). the experiment was conducted over eight weeks, during which the participants met one two-hour session and two two-hour sessions each week. the three groups were compared for their communication skills at the end of the instruction. data were collected using the bayer-fetzer kalamazoo communication skill checklist and analyzed by one-way anova and tukey’s post hock test.findings: there was a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of communication skills for the three groups evaluated by the simulated patient (p=0.001) and the researcher (p=0.001). tpbl and hpbl instructional strategies enhanced students’ communication skills more than cotl.conclusion: tpbl and hpbl instructional strategies are more effective than cotl, and pbl can be useful where there are shortages of instructors or faculty members to teach pbl groups in a large classroom setting.