English abstract
Due to the increments in the number of students admitted in nursing programs and to avoid
risks to patient safety, simulation-based education is considered a solution for nursing
colleges to maintain the quality of its outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the quality
of undergraduate Nursing students' simulation experience by exploring the perception of
both students and clinical instructors, especially after using high-fidelity simulators at
Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The study followed the quantitative and qualitative
research approach and purposively selected sampling. One hundred and twenty-one (121)
students and 17 members of the faculty from five nursing courses voluntarily participated
in completing two questionnaires which included three main subscales which are realism,
value, and transferability. Ten students and three faculty members were interviewed, while
67 students were evaluated to explore the improvement in their performance using a rubric
adapted from Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) rubric for evaluation
students' performance in terms of patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration,
evidence, quality, safety, informatics, and professionalism. The quantitative data were
analyzed using SPSS Version 23 by calculating the mean, standard deviation, and
agreement percentage. Moreover, a thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative
data.
The findings revealed a general satisfaction by the students towards the simulation
experience. While, it revealed a high satisfaction level by the faculty. The thematic analysis
for interviews highlighted the themes, which were simulation experience benefits, its
insufficiencies, and areas that could be targeted for improvement. The rubric findings
showed satisfactory students' performance from the faculty perception during patient
encounters and it underlined the strong and weak points of competencies.
This study experience yielded many implications as it demonstrated the role of simulation
as viable alternative environment for real clinical settings in enhancing students'
knowledge, skills, and performance. It highlighted the problems that the male students face
during their practice on women's disease and childbirth especially in a society that respects
customs and traditions. In addition, it pointed out the need to provide high-quality training
for technicians to deal with the simulators' technical problems to maximize learning,
purchase extra simulators to cover the increase in the number of students admitted, and
continuously evaluate the simulation experience to discover the strengths and weaknesses
which help educators and policy makers to improve the quality of the simulation.
