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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.

Sec. Healthcare Professions Education

Study on the effectiveness of implementing case-based learning within the CDIO framework in an "Evidence-Based Nursing" curriculum: A longitudinal study

Provisionally accepted
Wei  LuoWei Luo1Guangyu  YangGuangyu Yang2Hua  YuanHua Yuan3Yao  LuYao Lu3Xueqi  DongXueqi Dong3Meixue  HouMeixue Hou3Hui  XueHui Xue4Xiu-ying  ZhangXiu-ying Zhang1*
  • 1Department of Fundamental Nursing, School of Nursing, Jilin University, Changchun, China
  • 2Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
  • 3Department of Fundamental Nursing, School of Nursing,, Jilin University, Changchun, China
  • 4Department of Histology & Embryology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Evidence-based nursing curriculum is a key course to develop nursing students' evidence-based practice competencies. How to plan and design an evidence-based nursing curriculum to improve students' competencies has been an issue explored by nursing educators. Case-based learning (CBL) has been widely used in teaching practices that promote the development of nursing students' practice competencies. However, an effective framework for implementing CBL in evidence-based nursing curricula to facilitate the development of these competencies remains unclear. Additionally, most current evaluations of the effectiveness of CBL implementation focus on endpoint indicators, while neglecting the impact on learners' learning processes. This focus is not conducive to analyzing the mechanisms behind CBL's effectiveness in student development and hinders the continuous optimization of instructional design. Objective: This study explored the effectiveness of an instructional model that integrates CBL with the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) model and analyzed the students' learning processes based on the control-value theory (CVT). Design: A longitudinal pre-and post-test study. 2 Methods: The study was conducted in a master's nursing program at a university in China, involving 64 students. Participants completed the questionnaires before and after the implementation of the instructional model. The data were analyzed using SPSS 27 software. Results: Excellent results were achieved in this instructional model. Students' knowledge and skills increased significantly. Our results also demonstrated that students' competencies (attitudes, skills, and knowledge) were influenced by control appraisals, emotions, and learning strategies. Conclusions: Future research should vigorously develop such models to advance evidence-based nursing. Furthermore, educators should focus on key factors that influence student learning to foster a more conducive teaching environment.

Keywords: Evidence-Based Nursing, Case-based learning, Emotions, control-value theory, learning process

Received: 23 Sep 2025; Accepted: 05 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Luo, Yang, Yuan, Lu, Dong, Hou, Xue and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Xiu-ying Zhang, z_xy@jlu.edu.cn

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