Leveraging an Innovative Teaching Strategy to Identify Use of Biostatistics by Advanced Practice Nurses

Advanced practice nurses (APNs) have a responsibility to translate research evidence into their clinical practice (i.e., evidence-based practice) for the promotion of patient and population health. A precursor to the adoption of evidence-based practice is APNs having sufficient knowledge and understanding of biostatistics. To promote APN students’ motivation to learn biostatistics, nursing faculty teaching biostatistics need to know how biostatistics are used by APNs in their clinical practice. A teaching innovation was incorporated in a biostatistics course to describe the use of biostatistics by APNs. For this study, 118 students conducted interviews with APNs determining their use of biostatistics in clinical practice. Students posted interview summaries to Flipgrid, a video web-based blog. Blog posts were qualitatively analyzed; derived themes were Consuming the Literature, Translating the Evidence, and Conducting Biostatistical Analyses. The APN interview as implemented was an active learning strategy effective for generating the scientific premise to inform students of the need to learn biostatistics.