Student Evaluation of Nursing Simulation Lab Learning Experience

Objective: Describe and examine the effect of influential factors in simulation labs on the students’ total experience in learning the concepts taught in the didactic portion of nursing courses at a four-year university.

Background: Nursing education is developing leading to a great emphasis on new, effective strategies that focuses on using simulation labs to enhance students’ clinical judgment and critical thinking. The end of semester student evaluation of teaching (SET) of simulation labs reflect factors that can affect the students’ learning experience. SET of simulation labs helps faculty plan for future changes in course objectives based on the students’ needs.

Method/design: Two hundred and eighty-five anonymous student evaluations of teaching simulation lab surveys were collected retrospectively for the academic years of 2014 through 2016.

Results: Multiple regression analysis showed that the most influential item was “Lab experiences clarify the lecture material.” The least influential item was “I can complete the lab activities in the time allotted.” Students were mostly concerned about how the simulation lab will prepare them to better understand the associated didactic course material and concepts. Students’ evaluations were also affected by the availability and quality of simulation equipment used in the simulation lab.

Conclusion: Students’ evaluation of simulation provided input about factors that can affect how and what students are learning during simulation time. Using students’ input in the evaluation of the simulation lab will help nurse educators strengthen the nursing curriculum and make necessary changes to meet the course objectives, students’ needs, and external learning outcomes.

Keywords: Simulation; Nursing; Influential factors; Student evaluation; Learning; Clinical