PERCEPTION OF NURSING STUDENTS ON SIMULATION AS A LEARNING STRATEGY AT NURSING TRAINING COLLEGES IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Simulation is a teaching and learning strategy used in nursing education for the preparation of nursing students for clinical practice. The nursing education principally centre on nursing knowledge, and assisting learners acquire the necessary skills and attitudes associated with nursing practice to care for patients as they deal with and handle real- life situations. The nursing students’ views are shaped by heavily by practical realities and clinical experience. This study sought to determine the perception of nursing students on simulation as a learning strategy at selected nursing training colleges in Nairobi County Kenya. The following specific objective was to assess the perception of nursing students towards integration of simulation program as a learning strategy at nursing training colleges in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study was guided by the theory of experiential learning, postulated by Kolb (1984). The study adopted a descriptive exploratory design in a quantitative approach. The target Population for the study was 1067 consisting of diploma nursing students training at medical colleges in Nairobi County. The stratified random sampling technique was used in this study and the sample size was 210 participants. The stratification was based on college block system and clinical rotation placements. The study population was stratified by the year of study. The number of students respondents per year of study was determined by the weight of classroom of the total population. The self-administered questionnaires were subjected to a reliability test through a pilot study in which the questionnaires were administered and later responses cross-checked through the test -retest. The pilot study also helped in validation of the instruments through amending unclear and obscure questions and discarding ineffective and non-functional questions. Data was collected using a closed-ended self-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed through descriptive (frequency, percentages, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination, analysis of variance, and model coefficients). Pearson correlation coefficient was at a significant level of 0.01. SPSS software was used to compute analysis. The findings were that integration of simulation programs significantly influences simulation as a learning strategy for nursing students. The findings gave an R-Square of 0.868 with the standard error of estimate being 0.128. This implies that using the composite score, integration of simulation program, classification simulation, clinical experience as well as benefits of simulation significantly influences simulation as a learning strategy for nursing students. Results also provided a p-value = 0.000 < 0.05. This further confirms that the predictors positively and significantly influence simulation as a learning strategy for nursing students. The study concludes that the integration of simulation programs significantly influences simulation as a learning strategy among nursing students. The study strongly recommends that nursing educators should make simulation an integral part of their teaching for nursing students as embracing an integral approach will improve students' learning approach, formulation of a policy framework on the classification of simulation approaches, learners should know the classifications and practice them effectively. Students should practice clinical skills so as to generate experience that would yield positive results, the nursing colleges should embrace simulation learning strategy as it has a lot of benefits to learners.