Effects of a Simulation-based Integrated Clinical Practice Program(SICPP) on the Problem Solving Process, Clinical Competence and Critical Thinking in a Nursing Student

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a Simulation-based Integrated Clinical Practice Program (SICPP) for nursing students and to identify the effect of this program. Methods: A non-equivalent pre-post test of quasi-experimental design was used. One hundred thirty-one nursing students participated in the study with 69 in the experimental group and 62 in the control group. We developed a SICPP taking 3 hours per session, once per week for 10 weeks. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 19.0 program with descriptive statistics, <TEX>χ²</TEX>-test, independent t-test. Results: There were significant increases in nursing clinical competence (t=2.72, p=.008) and critical thinking(t=2.18, p=.031) in the experimental group compared to the control group. However, there was no difference in the problem solving process (t=0.36, p=.720) between the experimental and control groups. Conclusion: These results indicate that a SICPP can be used as an integrative program for enhancing the core performance of nursing students. However, a SICPP to promote the problem solving process needs to be more developed and research related with SICPP is further needed.