High-fidelity nursing simulation : impact on student self-confidence and clinical competence

High-fidelity simulation has been recommended as a teaching-learning strategy to increase students’ self-confidence and clinical competence. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the self-confidence of four groups of students, two in the traditional clinical lab, and two in the enhanced clinical simulation lab, and faculty ratings of the clinical competence of students in a medical-surgical nursing course from midterm to final. This study is a partial replication of Blum, Borglund, and Parcells’ (2010) study. The Tanner (2006) Clinical Judgment Model and the Lasater (2007) Clinical Judgment Rubric provide the framework for this study. The student sample will be 60 Junior Bachelor of Science nursing students at a large, public University in the mid-western United States. The instrument to measure student selfconfidence and clinical competence will be the Lasater (2007) Clinical Judgment Rubric. The findings will provide information regarding the use of high-fidelity simulation in nursing education.