Clinical Simulation, the Effect on Objective Test Scores

The use of clinical simulators is one of the newest trends in nursing education. The use of a patient simulator provides the clinical faculty a means of exposing every student in the class to a specific patient experience. Although simulation is not intended to replace actual clinical experience, it is a means of providing for every student those clinical situations that the faculty members identify as most significant. This project examined the effect of simulation utilized in the school of nursing on objective test scores. The purpose was to determine if there is a difference on objective test scores between students who utilize a simulated clinical experience to reinforce the didactic content as compared to students taught the same content without exposure to simulation. The scores on the test questions related to that specific content were compared using an independent t-test