Evaluating Undergraduate Nursing Students' Learning Using Standardized Patients

Background The use of standardized patients is an established training technique in medical education. However, this problem-based learning approach is relatively new to the field of nursing education. Its benefits to undergraduate nursing education continue to be underinvestigated in the nursing literature. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using standardized patients in improving health assessment skills among first-year nursing students. Methods A comparative design was conducted on a convenience sample of 108 first-year undergraduate nursing students. Study participants were recruited from a university and community college collaborative nursing program in southwestern Ontario. Results Analysis of covariance results showed that after adjusting for baseline differences, the intervention group had higher objective structured clinical examination mean scores than the control group ( M = 78.57 and 69.28, F = 24.13, P ≤ .001). However, the two groups were not different in their theory scores ( M = 77.23 and 77.29, F = .002, P = .963). Conclusion The findings suggest that the use of standardized patients is an effective educational technique in undergraduate nursing education.