Lead Author: Violeth E. Singano
Submitted by: Amy Lorion, NBOME

This article describes a study in Tanzania comparing two approaches to teaching nursing students to perform a mental status evaluation (MSE): one where lecture is paired with practice performing the MSE with patients in a general medical ward who do not have symptoms of mental illness (control group) and one where the lecture is instead paired with performing the MSE with SPs trained to portray mental health symptoms (intervention group). The study involved 311 students from nursing schools across two regions of the country, with 202 students in the control group and 109 in the intervention group. The intervention group demonstrated “a significantly higher level of cognition regarding Mental Status Evaluation (MSE) when compared to the control group” plus “a 25% increase in confidence and cognition about mental health compared to traditional instructional hours.”

Read the full article in BMC Medical Education here.

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