The effect of virtual game simulation on students' perception of nursing diagnosis and clinical practice: Post-test only randomized controlled trial

Background: The virtual game simulation was prepared for nursing diagnosis and goal setting. Objectives: To determine the effect of virtual game simulation on nursing students' perception of nursing diagnosis and clinical practice. Design: This study is a post-test randomized controlled trial only. Methods: The study was conducted with 92 s-year students enrolled in the Nursing Department of a state university in a province of Turkey. Data were collected using the Descriptive Characteristics Form, Perceptions of Nursing Diagnoses Survey, and the Form for Evaluating the Effect of Virtual Game Simulation on Clinical Practice. Virtual game simulations, which are prepared for determining nursing diagnosis and creating goals, are offered to the use of first-year students after the theoretical education of the nursing process. In order to evaluate the effect of virtual game simulations on the perception of nursing diagnosis and clinical practice, second-year students who played the game voluntarily were included in the experimental group, and those who did not play were included in the control group. Students in the control (n = 46) and experimental (n = 46) groups completed the data collection tools prepared online via Google Forms. The relationship between the grouped variants was tested by Chi-Square (chi(2)) analysis. Mann-Whitney U-test was used because the data did not show normal distribution. Results: It was found that the mean score of the control group was significantly higher than the experimental group in the sub-dimension of the delineation and promotion of the nursing profession and in the total score of the Perceptions of Nursing Diagnoses Survey (PNDS) (p < 0.05). The students in the experimental group made positive statements about the effect of the virtual game simulation on clinical practice, such as, "I can determine nursing diagnoses correctly", "I can create the right target for the patient", and "I understand how to record the data I collect from the patient". The negative statements of the students were as follows: "I have difficulty in collecting data from the patient", "I have difficulty in interviewing the patient" and "I cannot be sure that I have determined all the nursing diagnoses for my patient". Conclusions: Virtual game simulation was found to be effective in students' perception of nursing diagnosis. It was noted that most of the students expressed positive views regarding the impact of virtual game simulations on clinical practice. It is recommended to use virtual game simulation to support formal education in teaching the nursing process.