The present study aimed to clarify students’ perspectives on the current state of and issues regarding nursing education utilizing simulated patients (SP) in order to obtain basic data for the development of an SP-based nursing education program.
A questionnaire survey regarding practical sessions using SPs was conducted on 690 nursing students and 624 responses were obtained.
Analysis revealed that 422 students (67.6%) had experienced nursing SPs, while 161 had not (25.8%); 41 students (6.6%) did not answer this question. Aspects of practice about which students felt most positive were “receiving impressions and opinions of their nursing care from the patient’s perspective that they would otherwise have been unaware of” followed by “being able to acquire cognizance regarding patients’ feelings and perspectives”. Conversely, students felt most negative about “being unable to perform care as they had imagined” and “feeling very nervous”.
Hearing patients’ feelings and impressions regarding nursing care, of which they would have been unaware without the SPs, stimulated students’ motivation to study; however, education program design must consider the influence of nervousness on learning effectiveness.
