Effectiveness of standardized patient on patient education skills of nursing students - a pilot study

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of simulation method in nursing education. Method: the experimental study was conducted from February 2013 to January 2014 at the Nursing Faculty of Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, and comprised second-year students. the subjects were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. the experimental group participated in a simulation laboratory that involved the use of a standardized patient. Data was collected and analysed using SPSS 20. Results: of the 66 subjects, with a mean age of 20 +/- 1.05 years, 62(93.9%) were females and 4(6.1%) were males. There were 32(48.5%) subjects in the experimental group and 34(51.5%) in the control group. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the mean scores obtained on the pretest, posttest (and retention test (p>0.05 each). However, experimental group had higher mean retention test scores (1.90 +/- 1.96). Conclusion: the knowledge levels of both groups increased, but lack of significant difference between the scores shows that both methods are successful.