Maintaining Clinical Training Continuity during COVID-19 Pandemic: Nursing Students' Perceptions about Simulation-Based Learning.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Simulation-based learning (SBL) in nursing education is an innovative pedagogical approach that has significantly improved nursing education. Adopting SBL provides a controlled environment for meeting educational objectives without the risk of harm to real patients. Given that social distancing is required during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, SBL is a suitable alternative to clinical training for nursing students to learn and acquire the required clinical competencies. The study aimed to describe the effectiveness of SBL as a complete substitute for clinical experience from the perspective of students. This cross-sectional descriptive survey investigated students' perceptions regarding the description of the effectiveness of SBL in four nursing colleges at four different universities across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. SETTINGS Four nursing colleges at four different universities across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Participants included nursing students who attended simulation sessions. Data were collected by distributing a self-administrated online questionnaire, the Modified Simulation Effectiveness Tool (SET-M), which is a 19-item. RESULTS: Approximately two-thirds of the participants were in their third (30.4%) and fourth (44.5%) academic year. The highest student presentation was for Site 1 (39.5%) and Site 2 (32.5%). Significant differences existed in all domains according to sex and university (p ≤ 0.001). There was a significant difference in relation to the level of agreement for pre-briefing, scenario, and debriefing domains (<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: SBL is a valuable teaching strategy that enhances nursing students' self-awareness, self-confidence, clinical performance, and efficiency in performing procedures with considerable gender variation. Female students had more positive perceptions toward simulation effectiveness.