Clinical Virtual Simulation in Nursing Education

Background: The introduction of simulation has produced significant improvements in nursing education. The technological evolution gives way to new opportunities through new pedagogical strategies. Some limitations found in high-fidelity simulators can be overcome by clinical virtual simulation (CVS). However, little is known about students' perceived ease, usefulness, and intention to use this new pedagogical strategy applied to nursing education. The aim of this study is to assess the ease, usefulness, and intention of pregraduate nursing students to use a clinical virtual simulator. Method: An exploratory, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted using a quantitative approach. A nonprobabilistic sample of 426 pregraduate students was recruited from a Portuguese nursing school. The data were collected through a questionnaire (10-point Likert scale) based on the Technology Acceptance Model. Results: The results showed an average of perceived ease to use the simulator of 8.99 (SD +/- 1) and a perceived usefulness and intention of 9.60 (SD +/- 0.55) to use the clinical virtual simulator in pregraduate nursing education. Results also showed an average of 9.55 (SD +/- 0.73) for relevance and an average of 9.71 points (SD +/- 0.59) for the facilitator role of CVS in nursing education. Conclusion(s): The pregraduate nursing students revealed perceived ease, usefulness, and intention to use CVS as an important complementary strategy for their nursing education programmes. (C) 2017 International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.