Development and Evaluation of Three Pediatric-based Clinical Simulation

This paper reports the development of three pediatric-based clinical simulations and students' evaluation of them as a teaching-learning experience. Students evaluated (1) perception of the design features of the simulations, (2) evaluation of the educational practices, and (3) their satisfaction and self-confidence in learning using structured measurement instruments. Overall, students experienced satisfaction and self-confidence through their participation in the simulations, perceived the clinical simulations as using best practice, and evaluated the simulations as being well designed. Means on the quantitative scales and selected subscales ranged from 3.45 to 4.40 for scales ranging from 1.0 to 5.0 with scale scores for the importance of realism, support, and feedback being the highest. Themes that emerged from the content analysis of the narrative data were “The more real the simulation, the better the learning,” “Support and guidance are essential throughout the entire learning experience,” and “Debriefing is the key element to students' learning.” Students' narrative comments suggested that participation in the clinical simulations made the learning of theoretical concepts and nursing intervention skills easier, and they enjoyed working as a team and felt empowered. In contrast, several students did express stress and performance anxiety during participation in the clinical simulation experience.