Effectiveness of a high-fidelity simulation in terms of cardiac auscultation knowledge and skills among nursing students

Physical assessment skills are essential to the make of health assessment to all health-care professionals, and a basic component in education programmes to undergraduate nursing. This study was conducted to compare the effects of the use of a high-fidelity simulator on the knowledge and skills of students on cardiac examination skills. An experimental study was conducted among 60 undergraduate nursing students. The participants were randomly assigned using the coin toss method and equally divided into 2 groups: the experimental group and the control group, with 30 students in each. The experimental group received training using the Laerdal SimMan 3G high-fidelity simulator, while the control group received traditional lecture-based instruction. This study was implemented between September 19 and October 25, 2021. In the intervention group, the mean age was 27.1 ± 3.2, while 26.5 ± 4.6 was in the control group. The male was more present in both groups Intervention group 74.5% and control 78.6%, and in fourth nursing level Intervention group 50.4% and control 51.4%. High-fidelity simulators group showed significantly different than traditional teaching method in terms of cardiac auscultation knowledge and skill mean score. General descriptive characteristics of both study groups were not significantly different (P >.05). The results confirmed that high-fidelity simulation is an effective teaching method, enabling students to engage in interactive clinical scenarios in a safe and risk-free environment. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the effectiveness of high-fidelity simulation in enhancing clinical competence among undergraduate nursing students. It also highlights the value of integrating simulation-based learning into nursing curricula to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world clinical practice.