Supplementing Clinical Practice in Nursing Homes With Simulation Training: A Qualitative Study of Nursing Students’ Experiences

INTRODUCTION: Limited access to nurse supervisors, insufficient learning support and staff with high workloads are well documented in the research literature as barriers to nursing students´ learning in clinical practice in nursing homes. Due to these barriers nursing students may benefit from additional learning support from nurse educators during their clinical practice period. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore nursing students’ experiences of supplementary simulation training as a tool to support learning during clinical practice in nursing homes. METHODS: A descriptive qualitative design was used. Twenty-seven first-year nursing students from a university college in Norway were interviewed after attending a seven-week practice period in nursing homes with supplementary simulation training. Three semi-structured focus group interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analysed using systematic text condensation. FINDINGS: Three categories of student experiences were identified: enhancing the reasoning behind care, transferring knowledge and experiences between the learning environments and enhancing the sense of mastery. CONCLUSION: The supplementary simulation training seemed to complement clinical practice by consolidating the students’ learning during the clinical practice period, enhance the students’ motivation and sense of mastery, and consequently their efforts to seek out new challenges, explore and learn both in the clinical and the simulated environment.