Simulation and Clinical Competency in Undergraduate Nursing Programs: A Multisite Prospective Study.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Medical Simulation
• Clinical Competence Assessment

Background:

• Prelicensure nursing education requires better understanding of simulation's role versus traditional clinical instruction.
• Clinical competence development is a key outcome in nursing programs.
• Simulation is increasingly used as an adjunct or replacement for traditional clinical hours.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of redistributing clinical hours from traditional settings to simulation on nursing students' clinical competence.
• To compare licensure examination pass rates between students receiving traditional instruction and those in an intervention group using redesigned simulation.
• To assess the effectiveness of integrating new educational approaches into simulation experiences.

Main Methods:

• A prospective cohort study design was employed across four prelicensure nursing programs.
• An intervention cohort experienced a redesign in simulation use and a redistribution of clinical hours.
• Student outcomes were assessed over five clinical courses, comparing intervention and control groups.

Main Results:

• The study included 271 control students and 315 intervention students.
• No significant differences were found in licensure examination pass rates between the groups.
• There were no uniform differences in clinical competency between the control and intervention groups.

Conclusions:

• Redistributing clinical hours from traditional settings to simulation did not negatively impact clinical competency or licensure exam results.
• Simulation-based education can potentially yield comparable results to traditional clinical instruction.
• These findings support the integration of simulation as a viable component in prelicensure nursing curricula.