Impact of Digital Storytelling on Nursing Students’ Perception

Abstract

Abstract\r\nBackground: In the context of nursing education, fostering empathy, engagement, critical thinking and clinical understanding is essential for preparing competent and compassionate healthcare professionals. Digital Storytelling (DST) has emerged as an innovative multimedia-based pedagogical tool that promotes emotional and cognitive learning by contextualizing theoretical knowledge within real-life clinical scenarios. In Medical-Surgical Nursing, where students are required to understand complex disease conditions, patient experiences, clinical decision-making and holistic care, DST can help bridge the gap between classroom learning and clinical practice.\r\nObjectives: The study aimed to assess the impact of Digital Storytelling on undergraduate nursing students’ perception.\r\nMethods: A quantitative one-group post-test-only design was employed. The study was conducted among 92 third-year B.Sc. Nursing students at a nursing college in Maharashtra, India. Participants were exposed to a DST-based session as part of their Medical-Surgical Nursing curriculum. The digital story included clinical content supported by narration, images, audio, patient-care context and reflective elements. Data were collected using a structured 10-item Likert scale immediately after the intervention. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including mean, standard deviation, one-sample t-test and Cohen’s d, were used for data analysis.\r\nResults: The mean perception score was 44.26 with a standard deviation of 4.20 out of a maximum score of 50, indicating a highly positive response toward Digital Storytelling. The one-sample t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the sample mean and the hypothesized neutral mean of 30, with t = 32.58 and p < 0.001. The calculated effect size was very large, with Cohen’s d = 3.40. These findings indicate that DST was perceived as a highly effective, engaging and meaningful instructional strategy by nursing students.\r\nConclusion: The findings suggest that Digital Storytelling is a highly effective and engaging instructional strategy in nursing education. It enhances learning by improving student perception, promoting emotional connection, strengthening attention and facilitating deeper understanding of clinical content. Incorporating DST into Medical-Surgical Nursing curricula may bridge the gap between theory and practice and enrich the educational experience. Future research using experimental designs, qualitative interviews and long-term follow-up is recommended to further explore its impact on knowledge, empathy, communication and clinical performance.\r\n