Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Body Mechanics among Nursing Students in Selected Nursing College of Mangalore Taluk

Background: Keeping the right posture is important with regard to health. Many have discovered to their astonishment that the simple step of keeping a perfect posture has reduced their back pain. Nurses as a group are frequently injured on the job due to the immobility of large patients and subsequent back pain are highly prevalent among nurses. Specific intervention like body mechanics helps to reduce the risk of back injury. Today's nursing students are tomorrow's nursing personnel. So if these students have to fulfil their roles as health personnel they need to develop healthy practises like body mechanics in each and every activity they perform.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge of body mechanics among second year Basic B. Sc. nursing students.

Methods: An evaluative approach with pre-experimental one group pre-test post-test design was adopted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding body mechanics among the 60 samples selected by simple random sampling technique using lottery method. Demographic proforma and structured closed ended knowledge questionnaire about body mechanics were used to gather pre and post data. A teaching programme on body mechanics was provided for the samples after the pre-test. The post-test was conducted on the seventh day and the data collected from the sample were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The study findings showed that the mean percentage of post-test (83.89%) knowledge score was higher than the mean percentage of pre-test (49.33%) knowledge score. The't' value computed between mean pre-test and post-test scores is statistically significant (t₍₅₉₎=25.57,table value t₍₅₉₎=1.670) P < 0.05). This revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean pre-test and post-test knowledge scores on body mechanics among second year Basic B.Sc. nursing students.

Conclusion: The study concluded that the second year Basic B.Sc. nursing students had less knowledge regarding body mechanics and the overall findings of the study indicated that there was an increase in the knowledge of samples following the administration of planned teaching programme. This showed that planned teaching programme was effective in improving the knowledge of second year Basic B. Sc. nursing students.