Measuring the Effectiveness of Visual Narrative Illustrations for Learning Pathophysiology Concepts

Background: Patients’ health needs require detailed knowledge of diseases and the associated pathophysiology to understand and manage their complex care. Nurses rely on concepts from anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology to ground their practice. While knowledge of disease processes is a critical requirements for competent practice nursing, students often struggle with learning and applying pathophysiology concepts to clinical practice. Method: A novel teaching innovation known as “Visual Narrative Illustrations” (VNI) was piloted in a pathophysiology course. Students (n=75), participated in two phases of exploratory study that analyzed the impact of VNI on students’ understanding of pathophysiology concepts and assessed whether VNI is an effective teaching method. Results: Students taught using the VNI strategy performed significantly better on the post-test than students taught using a traditional lecture format. Conclusion: VNI assist students in learning complex concepts through the use of humor and visual images and facilitate their understanding of pathophysiology processes.