Effect of Nursing Faculty Presence on Students' Anxiety, Self-Confidence, and Clinical Performance during a Clinical Simulation Experience

• Nursing faculty presence in the simulation room during a summative evaluation did not have a significant effect on students' state anxiety, self-confidence and satisfaction, or clinical performance.
• Change in state anxiety scores from pretest to posttest were found to be significantly different with an increase in state anxiety scores from pretest to posttest when faculty were present in the simulation room and a decrease in state anxiety scores from pretest to posttest when faculty were observing from the control room.
• Results provided partial support to recommend nursing faculty evaluate students from a control room or remote viewing location.
• The results of this study fill a gap within the literature and provide a solid foundation for future research specific to faculty presence.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nursing faculty presence on students' level of state anxiety, self-confidence, and clinical performance during a summative evaluation using clinical simulation.MethodThe quasi-experimental two group pre–post test research design used the Nursing Education Simulation Framework and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Instrument, and Clinical Performance Evaluation Tool to operationalize the concepts.ResultsFaculty presence in the simulation room did not have a significant effect on state anxiety, self-confidence and satisfaction, or clinical performance; yet, the change in state anxiety scores from pretest to posttest were found to be significantly different with an increase in state anxiety scores from pretest to posttest for the experimental group and a decrease in state anxiety scores from pretest to posttest for the control group.ConclusionsResults provided partial support to recommend nursing faculty evaluate students from a control room or remote viewing location.