Evaluation of students' perceived clinical competence and learning needs following an online virtual simulation education programme with debriefing during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a virtual simulation education programme with debriefing in undergraduate nursing students. Perceived clinical competence and learning needs of students in a simulation environment were also measured. BACKGROUND: Evidence showed virtual simulation education programmes provided better knowledge acquisition. However, these studies to date did not incorporate virtual simulation in the combination of a debriefing model in nursing students. DESIGN: A one‐group pre‐test and post‐test design. METHODS: 188 final year undergraduate nursing students participated in the study. Linear mixed model analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of the programme. RESULTS: Students have perceived a significant improvement in clinical competence and nursing process. Self‐efficacy has also boosted. Communication and critical thinking were applied better in the traditional clinical environment. CONCLUSION: Perceived clinical competence of Chinese nursing students has significant improvements by using virtual simulation combining a debriefing model during the COVID‐19 period. Virtual simulation met students' learning needs. Future studies should include a control group for comparison and long‐term measurement. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The study provided an innovative clinical learning pedagogy to serve as a potential alternative with traditional clinical practicum during the COVID‐19 period as this is substantially limited.