Diversity of nursing student views about simulation design: a q-methodological study.

BACKGROUND

Education of future nurses benefits from well-designed simulation activities. Skillful teaching with simulation requires educators to be constantly aware of how students experience learning and perceive educators' actions. Because revision of simulation activities considers feedback elicited from students, it is crucial to understand the perspective from which students base their response.

METHOD

In a Q-methodological approach, 45 nursing students rank-ordered 60 opinion statements about simulation design into a distribution grid.

RESULTS

Factor analysis revealed that nursing students hold five distinct and uniquely personal perspectives-Let Me Show You, Stand By Me, The Agony of Defeat, Let Me Think It Through, and I'm Engaging and So Should You.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest that nurse educators need to reaffirm that students clearly understand the purpose of each simulation activity. Nurse educators should incorporate presimulation assignments to optimize learning and help allay anxiety. The five perspectives discovered in this study can serve as a tool to discern individual students' learning needs.