The Effect of Simulation Training on Enhancing Nursing Students' Perceptions to Incorporate Patients' Families Into Treatment Plans: A Randomized Experimental Study

Introduction: As clinical placement in bachelor’s nursing programs becomes increasingly difficult, simulation is becoming increasingly common to enhance learning. Blended learning incorporating simulation videos provides students with the opportunity to observe and learn from exemplary practices while bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and its practical application. This study aimed to investigate the effect of simulation training on enhancing nursing students' perception of integrating patient's families' assessments into their treatment plan. Methods: A quantitative, experimental research design was used, with a control (56) and intervention group (67) from levels 7 and 8 senior nursing students at King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, College of Nursing, Jeddah, assigned randomly to each group. The tool consists of three sections: personal information, a Van Gelderen family rubric, and a role-play survey. The validity and reliability of the tools were confirmed by the original developer. In the current study, the reported Cronbach’s alpha was 95%. Results: A total of 123 students participated in the study. Their ages ranged between 19 and 23 years and 23 years and above, with a mean age of 21.3 ± 1.3 among the control group and 22.2 ± 1.1 among the experimental group. There was an improvement in the mean scores in the post-training phase compared to the pre-training phase in the experimental group, with a statistically significant difference at p < 0.05. However, there were no significant differences noted between the control and experimental groups in the pre-training phase compared to the statistically significant difference noted between the two groups in the post-training phase. Conclusion and recommendations: The findings of the study indicated that the utilization of scenario-based standardized patient-simulated exercises, guided by dedicated faculty and accompanied by reflective debriefing exercises, proved to be an effective approach for bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and its application in clinical practice. Therefore, the study prompts curriculum revisions to incorporate family assessment into nursing practices, as well as evidence-based strategies, such as learning activities that use standardized patient or high-fidelity simulation technology to address and possibly reduce the theory-practice gap for graduates when entering clinical practice.