Assessing The Perceived Effectiveness of Simulation Based Education in Enhancing Clinical Performance of Nursing Students

ABSTRACT Background: Increasingly Simulation Based Education (SBE) has also become more important for other dimensions of nursing education related to the gap between theory and practice, improvement in the self-confidence of learners and a better preparation for clinical situations in practice. But, there is still mixed opinion about its effectiveness among students in the nursing profession in less resource-rich countries like Pakistan. Objective: The effect of this study was to get the attitude and perception of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) students about the implementation of Simulation Based Education at the College of Nursing, Jinnah Hospital Lahore, Pakistan. Methodology: a descriptive cross sectional study design with probability simple random sampling technique was used, and the sample number was 150 students in her study took the BScN students. Data were obtained through the aid of a structured socio-demographic questionnaire and a 18 item Scale of Simulation-Based Education Attitude (SBEAS), which is already validated. The answers were measured on the 5 level of Likert scale. Permission to conduct studies was granted by an IRB and the data analysed using SPSS 24 software. To assure reliability of instruments used Cronbach's Alpha was calculated. Results: It was found that there were mixed responses from subjects to SBE. 49.3% disagreed SBE helped students transition to real-world practice and 45.3% didn't think it affected the quality of care provided.49.3% felt SBE was not effective to prepare students for actual care settings, and 45.3% were skeptical of its effect on the quality of healthcare. Chronbach's Alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of the instrument and the result was good (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.792). There was also a discrepancy in perceptions regarding that SBE decreased the occurrence of clinical incidents, connected theory and practice, and/or increased the workload. Conclusion: SBE has the potential to improve clinical education, promote critical decision making, self-awareness and clinical competence. While it may be effective, it has problems with implementation, lack of realism and variable feedback mechanisms. Designing simulation exercises with and refining teaching content, uniform task descriptions, and consistency of debriefing are crucial to the educational impact of simulation design.Theory simulations if proper design, standardize task and debriefing, can achieve the relatively maximum teaching effect. Keywords: In the context of the Simulation Based Education (SBE), Clinical Competence, Nursing education, Simulation based Education Assessment (SBEA),Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) students and Pakistan.