Increasing the use of experimental methods in nursing and midwifery education research

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.