Using Multiple-Patient Simulation Experiences to Foster Clinical Judgment

The ultimate goal of boards of nursing is to protect the public and ensure safe patient care by regulating nursing practice and education. Regulators, educators, and professional organizations agree that to practice safely, students must be prepared for the realities of practice. However, educators have little empirical evidence to guide their decisions about the learning experiences that best prepare students. Without such evidence, many educators are reluctant to make substantive changes in clinical learning experiences and continue to rely heavily on the predominant model of clinical education. This multisite study examines the impact of multiple-patient simulation experiences on the development of students' abilities to make clinical judgments in evolving situations and the correlation between the design of the simulation and student outcome achievement in the final semester of their prelicensure nursing program.