The Effectiveness of Simulation Modules Integrated with Problem Based Learning on Nursing Students’ Clinical Competency Evaluated by Simulation based Clinical Examination

초록

Objectives: The study purpose was to evaluate effectiveness of simulation education integrated with problem based learning (SIM-PBL) on nursing students’ clinical competency. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study using two cohorts of nursing students over 2 years. Students were taking 40 hour of clinical practicum in children’s health and 49 students of the intervention group received 3-hour SIM-PBL module, while 51 students of the control group received regular practicum. Their clinical competency was assessed using checklists (rating 0-100) in simulation based clinical examination (SCE). Within the groups, students were assigned to one of two scenarios using a high fidelity human simulator. The topics of scenarios were nursing care for children with either diabetes or asthma. Students were tested using SCE three times, before the intervention (baseline) and right after (post 1) and 6 month after the intervention (post 2). Results: The multiple regression analysis showed that intervention group obtained higher improvement of SCE scores at post 1 (t=6.642, p<.001) compared to the control group, even after adjusted by scenario assignment, grade point average and scores at baseline (R2= .613, F=38.333, p <.001). However, the effect (t=-1.160, p-=.249) could not continue at post 2 (R2= .345, F=12.245, p<.001). Conclusions: About 3 hour simulation training out of 40 hour clinical practicum can successfully replace regular clinical practicum hour in children’s health nursing and rather the replacement resulted in more improvements in clinical competency compared to regular practicum. Further studies are recommended in developing SIM-PBL modules for diverse nursing topics and evaluating their effectiveness in various aspects of students’ competency. This paper was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2011-0009627).