The effect of simulation based education on patient teaching skills of nursing students: A randomized controlled study

According to the literature, main problem in the education of nursing students in patient teaching about application of inhaler medication is ineffective and inadequate class and cannot be applied to the live patients. Also the literature shows that the main obstacle for teaching nursing students to provide inhaler instruction is inadequate in-class practice. In this study, comparison of the effectiveness between standard patients (SPs) usage and theoretical lecture on improving the patient teaching skills of nursing students for inhaler drug use for live patient is aimed. This study was conducted as a randomized controlled and single-blind trial. Total patient teaching skill score for control group was 26.73 +/- 5.63 and 39.08 +/- 5.49 for SP group which causes a statistically significant difference (p <= 0.01). The students' self-confidence mean score was 8.48 +/- 0.88 for SPs group and 7.07 +/- 1.33 in the control group for a statistically significant difference (p <= 0.01). The patient teaching skill scores of the students included in the group receiving simulation teaching with the SPs were found to be higher than the control group. The students included in SPs group were found to feel more confident while teaching a live patient on inhaler drug use.