The Effect of Puzzle Activity on Nursing Students' Willingness to Work With Older Adults and Gerontological Nursing Competence

Gazi University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Puzzle Activity

Treatments: Other: Puzzle Activity

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06903533

2025 -397

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study will be conducted using a parallel-group randomized controlled experimental design to determine the effect of a puzzle activity on nursing students' willingness to work with older adults and their competence in gerontological nursing. The study population will consist of second-year students (N=243) enrolled in the Faculty of Nursing at a university. The sample of the study will include at least 86 nursing students, with 43 students in the puzzle group and 43 students in the control group. The research will be carried out between March 2025 and June 2025. In this study, data will be collected using the "Descriptive Information Form," the "Willingness to Work with Older People Scale," and the "Gerontological Nursing Competence Scale."

Full description

The study will be conducted using a parallel-group randomized controlled experimental design to determine the effect of a puzzle activity on nursing students' willingness to work with older adults and their gerontological nursing competence. The study group will consist of second-year students (N=243) enrolled in the Faculty of Nursing at a university. The G*Power program was used to calculate the sample size. In the reference study (Kaynak, S., Ergün, S., & Karadaş, A. (2023). The effect of crossword puzzle activity used in distance education on nursing students' problem-solving and clinical decision-making skills: A comparative study. Nurse Education in Practice, 69, 103618), it was determined that at least 86 students (43+43) were needed, with α = 0.05, 80% power, and an effect size of 0.615.

After assigning the students to the intervention and control groups, a puzzle activity will be conducted with the intervention group following a lecture. In preparing the puzzles, the researchers will use free online puzzle-making tools (e.g., https://crosswordlabs.com/). The puzzles will include questions related to basic knowledge and concepts concerning gerontological nursing competence. During the puzzle-solving process, the researcher will be present in the classroom and provide guidance to students when needed. After students complete the puzzles, the researcher will project the puzzle on the presentation screen and evaluate the answers through interactive discussion with the students. Upon completion of each puzzle, the researcher will collect the puzzles from the students to prevent contamination between the intervention and control groups. A post-test will be administered to students at the end of the puzzle activity.

Enrollment: 86 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• • Being a second-year nursing student

  • Volunteering to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

Not taking the Geriatric Health Nursing course

• Having difficulty in understanding and speaking Turkish
• Incomplete or incorrectly answered data collection tools
• Willingness to withdraw from the study voluntarily

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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86 participants in 2 patient groups

Puzzle Activity Group

Experimental group

Description:

The puzzles, which include questions related to basic knowledge and concepts of gerontological nursing competence, are required to be solved over a period of three weeks.

Treatment:

Other: Puzzle Activity

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

After explaining the purpose and implementation of the study to the nursing students in the control group, the "Descriptive Information Form," the "Willingness to Work with Older People Scale," and the "Gerontological Nursing Competence Scale" will be administered. No intervention will be applied to the control group. At the end of the third week, the "Willingness to Work with Older People Scale" and the "Gerontological Nursing Competence Scale" will be re-administered.