Implications of practical activities in the Skills and Simulation Laboratory on students’ motivation and feelings

OBJECTIVE: to verify the implications of practical activities in the Skills and Simulation Laboratory on the motivation and feelings expressed by undergraduate students when returning to face-to-face activities after the social isolation caused by COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: a quasi-experimental study, with a single group and of the pre- and post-test type, carried out through an educational intervention based on skills training on medication administration and venipuncture, with medical students from a Brazilian public university. The sample was comprised by 47 students. The instruments of students’ characterization and self-perceived feelings and the Situational Motivation Scale were used for data collection. RESULTS: in the sample, 98% mentioned the lack of practical activities during the pandemic. The most frequently described feeling was anxiety. After carrying out the activity, there was a change in the frequency of expressed feelings, although there was no significant change in motivational levels. External Regulation (5.1 - 5.6), Identified Regulation (6.1 - 6.4) and Intrinsic Motivation (5.6 - 6.0) presented high results, showing similarity to the feelings reported by the learners. CONCLUSION: motivation is essential for effective learning and the use of active methodologies reinforces skills built in an affective way in the students facing the learning process.