A Study to Assess Effectiveness of Self Instructional Module on Knowledge Regarding Medico-Legal Aspects in Nursing among Registered Nurses of Selected Hospital

Background: Nursing is an integral part of the health care system and nurses direct their services towards the prevention, promotion, maintenance& restoration of health. There has been a revolution in health care system as a result of new technologies and the role of nurses has also expanded rapidly including expertise specialization, autonomy& accountability. In the new world of nursing practice, knowledge regarding medico-legal aspects in nursing has been emerged as an immediate concern to prevent them from any lawsuit. Today, health service consumers are better informed than in the past about health and illness through news papers, magazines, television and multimedia. It is thus imperative that all nurses should be aware of their responsibility to the patient and also sensitive to medico legal issues if quality health care is to be assured. In view of the above changes, it was felt that self instructional module (SIM) must be an effective option in enhancing the knowledge of registered nurses on medico-legal aspects in nursing Aim: A quasi experimental study was conducted at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (I. G. M. C. H) Shimla, H. P. with an objective to assess the effectiveness of self instructional module on knowledge regarding medico-legal aspects in nursing among registered nurses. Methodology: Quantitative approach and quasi experimental research design was used to conduct the present study. Convenience sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 60 registered nurses (30 in experimental group and 30 in control group). Pretest knowledge of study sample regarding medico-legal aspects in nursing was assessed through self-administered questionnaire and then post test knowledge was assessed after 1 week of providing self instructional module (SIM) to the experimental group. Results: The study findings showed that knowledge score of experimental group in pretest was-majority of the subjects i. e.23 (76 %) had average knowledge regarding medico-legal aspects in nursing, 2 (6.7 %) had good knowledge whereas 5 (16.7 %) had below average knowledge. Whereas in control group no subject i. e.0 (0 %) had good knowledge, 26 (86.7) had average knowledge and 4 (13.3 %) had below average knowledge regarding medico-legal aspects in nursing. After administration of SIM to experimental group, it was found that that in experimental group majority of the subjects i. e.28 (93.3 %) had good knowledge while 2 (6.7 %) had average knowledge and no subject was in category knowledge score of below average. In control group 1 (3.3 %) had good knowledge score, 25 (83.3 %) had average knowledge and 4 (13.3 %) were in knowledge score category of below average. Findings revealed that there is significant change in post knowledge score of experimental group with increase in pretest mean score i. e.13.03 to 23.37 in post test at t value 13.541 with degree of freedom is 29. Standard deviation of experimental group was 3.409 in pretest while in post test, it became 3.527. Conclusion: Thus findings indicated that there is increase in the knowledge score of experimental group after administration of SIM and hence it is proved that there is an effect of SIM to enhance the knowledge regarding medico-legal aspects in nursing among registered nurses.