Effect of Simulation Role on Clinical Decision-Making Accuracy

Background: Clinical simulation affords valuable practice with the process of clinical decision-making. Participation in the simulation experience often includes various roles (e.g., primary nurse; observer) as well as familiar and unfamiliar situations. Method: This study used a quantitative, mixed factorial design. Results: Role did not impact clinical decision-making accuracy on the familiar situation. On the unfamiliar situation, observers outperformed other roles, whereas family members were markedly less accurate. Conclusion: These results emphasize the need for students to rotate through various roles and for educators to consider the nature and goal of the scenario when deciding what types of roles to assign. (C) 2016 International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.