HPS More Effective than CD-ROM for Improving Cognition and Performance

BackgroundMilitary health care personnel need to have knowledge and skills relative to caring for patients on the battlefield. No studies have compared the two strategies of using the human patient simulator (HPS) and a CD-ROM in caring for combat injuries.MethodA prospective, pre–post test, experimental, mixed design (within and between) was used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences in HPS and CD-ROM educational strategies in lower-level, higher-level cognition, critical thinking, and performance.ResultsA repeated analysis of variance and a least significant difference post hoc test were used to analyze the data. The HPS group performed better than the CD-ROM and control groups relative to all the variables (p < .05).ConclusionThe HPS method of instruction is a more effective method of teaching than the CD-ROM approach.