Learning Objective #1: Evaluate the impact of participation in high fidelity patient simulation on nursing students' perception of clinical competence.

Learning Objective #2: Evaluate the impact of participation in high fidelity patient simulation on new graduates' performance on exit examinations, such as the HESI E2 and NCLEX-RN.

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High fidelity patient simulation is increasingly used in nursing education to support students' development of clinical knowledge, skills, and judgment in a “safe” environment. This simulation gives students an opportunity to respond to patient situations, which they may not experience during their assignment to clinical agencies. While educators believe that such learning opportunities have a positive influence on students' actual and perceived clinical competence at the time of graduation, there is a dearth of evidence to support these beliefs. As a result, many educators are fearful of substituting simulation activities for placement in clinical agencies, despite limitations in many of these sites.

This proposed presentation reports a study of the impact of participation in high fidelity patient simulation learning activities on associate and baccalaureate degree nursing students' perceptions of their clinical competence throughout their course work and at graduation. Students' perceptions of their clinical competency were measured by the Clinical Competence Appraisal Scale (CCAS Study participants completed the CCAS early in the semester following completion of their “fundamentals” course and again at the time of their graduation. There were 895 duplicated responses during the six data collection periods over the three years of the study. The responses are compared by year, by school affiliation and by success on identified exit exams,

The results of this study provide data regarding the impact of scenario-based high fidelity simulation on student perceptions of their actual and perceived clinical competence. The international community of nurse educators will find this presentation helpful as they struggle with limited resources to increase the number of competent new graduates to meet the world-wide shortage of nurses.