Abstract

Aim: To consider how more use could be made of experimental research in nursing and midwifery education.

Background: Much use has been made in nursing and midwifery educational research of pre- and post-, within-subjects research. While this has its place and has been a valuable design for testing educational interventions, there has been a distinct lack of more rigorous experimental designs.

Design: Discussion paper to consider the use of experimental designs in nursing and midwifery education research.

Methods: A review of within-subjects designs, between-subjects designs and new approaches to experimental research such as pragmatic designs, non-inferiority designs and the framework offered by complex interventions.

Results: Recommendations for implementing experimental designs in nursing and midwifery education research have been drawn.

Conclusions: Within-subjects designs have dominated experimental research in nursing and midwifery education. While suitable for preliminary studies, they should be augmented by more rigorous designs based on between-subjects designs. These do not have to be strictly randomised controlled trials and there are many reasons why these are hard to implement in nursing and midwifery education research. However, a range of alternatives is available.