Measuring the adoption and integration of virtual patient simulations in nursing education: An exploratory factor analysis

This study sought to develop a valid and reliable instrument to identify the characteristics of computer-based, interactive, and asynchronous virtual patient simulations that nurse educators identify as important for adoption, and the subsequent curricular integration strategies they employed. Once these factors were identified, this study also sought to explore any relationships between the influential features for adoption and the ways in which the adopted virtual patients are integrated. Data were collected with the Virtual Patient Adoption and Integration in Nursing (VPAIN) survey, which was completed by 178 nurse educators who were currently using, or had previously used virtual patient simulations. Both exploratory factor analysis and correlation analysis were conducted. Through exploratory factor analysis, 55.6% of the variance in the VPAIN adoption subscale data was accounted for by the nine adoption factors identified: Trustworthiness, Worldbuilding, Pedagogy, Differentiation, Encouragement, Clarity, Evaluation, Administrative Pressure, and Visibility. The factor analysis also identified five factors within the integration subscale, which accounted for 53.3% of the variance: Hour Replacement, Intensive Integration, Leveling, Preparation, and Benchmarking. A correlation analysis was conducted to identify relationships between the adoption and integration factors.