Computer simulations as a measure of nursing students' decision-making skills

Use of computer simulations was studied as a strategy to evaluate clinical decision-making skills of 64 senior baccalaureate nursing students who were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. All students completed Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, a pre- and posttest that was a computer assisted instruction (CAI) clinical simulation specific to the student's clinical placement, and a 36 item attitudinal and evaluative questionnaire developed for the study. The experimental group complete three additional simulations over a 7 week period. Change scores from pre- and posttests were analyzed to determine: 1) if students completing a CAI series demonstrated higher achievement on information-gathering and decision-making skills than students who did not complete the series; 2) if there was a correlation between achievement and clinical grades; and 3) if there was a relationship between achievement and a particular learning style. Although all students demonstrated that significant learning had occurred during the semester, there was no difference between the students completing the full CAI series and those who did not. Students who made significant improvements in decision-making scores also earned higher clinical grades. Success on the CAI series was found to be independent of learning style. Most students expressed positive attitudes about CAI.