SIRC - National League for Nursing

Evaluating Simulations offers practical suggestions for evaluating a variety of knowledge, skill and attitudinal aspects of the simulation experience, based on the NLN simulation model. The course distinguishes between formative and summative evaluation and discusses situations for choosing these methods. It provides several examples of tools that can be customized as well as an extensive reference list.

1. Describe different approaches for using clinical simulation to assess or evaluate student performance
2. Identify selected student learning outcomes that may be measured after simulation was used as a teaching-learning strategy:
   1. Student satisfaction with the clinical simulation experience
   2. Student knowledge acquisition
   3. Student skill performance
   4. Critical thinking skill application and development
   5. Student self-confidence in specific patient management situations
3. Identify at least one strategy to evaluate the effectiveness of your clinical simulation.

Susan Prion, EdD, RN is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of San Francisco. She is actively engaged in research about situated cognition, clinical microsystems and clinical simulation experiences for undergraduate and clinical nurse leader master's-entry students. She is a co-recipient of a 2008 Debra Spunt Research Minigrant awarded by INACSL, a USF Jesuit Foundation award to fund an investigation about standardized patient training with acting students, and a USF Faculty Grant for a research project to describe student behaviors in a clinical setting compared with a simulation.