Purposeful Simulation Role Assignment

Background: Nursing students are often assigned various roles during a simulation. Some nursing stu-dents prefer to provide direct care during simulation while others prefer to observe. Method: A double-blind, randomized control trial was conducted to explore the impact of purposeful simulation role assignment, using preferred learning styles, on prelicensure nursing students' clinical reasoning. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in clinical reasoning scores for both the experimental and control groups. There was also a statistically significant increase in clinical reasoning scores for both the direct care provider and the observers. Conclusions: The results support the random assignment of simulation roles. In addition, the results indicate that simulation observers can achieve the same learning outcomes as the direct care providers. (C) 2020 International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.