Effects of Psychiatric Nursing Simulation Practice on Learning Satisfaction, Communication Self-Efficacy, and Psychiatric Nursing Competency in Nursing Students

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a psychiatric nursing simulation practice program utilizing standardized patients on nursing students’ learning satisfaction, communication self-efficacy, and psychiatric nursing competency. Specifically, this study aimed to determine whether the simulation program could improve students’ learning satisfaction, enhance their communication self-efficacy, and increase their psychiatric nursing competency. This study employed a pre-post design with a single group and was conducted as a quasi-experimental study. The participants consisted of 80 third-year nursing students enrolled at a nursing school located in D city. The research was conducted from from May 18 to June 18, 2023, during the institution’s regular nursing simulation practice period, with 1 session per week over 6 weeks. To assess the effects of the program, structured questionnaires measuring learning satisfaction, communication self-efficacy, and psychiatric nursing competency were administered before and after the training. The data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics 24.0. The results revealed that after the psychiatric nursing simulation practice program, nursing students’ communication self-efficacy significantly increased from a pre-training score of 3.71 to 3.93(t=-3.46, p=.001), their psychiatric nursing competency improved from 3.35 to 3.89 (t=-8.44 ,p<.001), and their learning satisfaction averaged 4.46 out of 5, indicating a high level of satisfaction. The findings of this study confirm that the psychiatric nursing simulation practice program was effective in enhancing nursing students’ communication self-efficacy, psychiatric nursing competency, and learning satisfaction. Based on the results, simulation-based psychiatric nursing practice programs can be further developed and tailored for various clinical situations to enhance nursing education and improve competency in mental health care.