Nursing students’ satisfaction with simulated clinical experience: a mixed-methods study

Abstract

The simulated clinical experience is an important strategy to approach professional practice. This study aims to assess undergraduate nursing students’ satisfaction with simulated clinical experiences. A mixed-methods study was conducted. One hundred seventy nine students of the undergraduate Nursing Course of the first year participated in the simulation. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire of sociodemographic, Simulated Clinical Experiences Satisfaction Scale and two open questions about the simulated practice importance in nursing students teaching-learning process.
Four categories emerged from qualitative analysis: approximation to clinical practice; facilitator of professional life; develops the dimensions of nursing care; dynamic and critical reflective teaching-learning process. Overall, students are very satisfied with the simulated clinical experiences, being the cognitive satisfaction dimension with the highest mean value (88.23%). The overall simulated clinical experience satisfaction and the previous simulated clinical experience showed a statistically significant difference (U=3008.5; p= 0.037), and students who did not have the previous simulated experience had a higher mean raking. The students who intervened directly in the scenario presented greater overall simulated clinical experience satisfaction than those who did not intervene in the scenario. There are no significant statistical differences between participation in the debriefing and overall satisfaction. The Simulated clinical practice promotes students meaningful learning development in a realistic and risk-free environment.