The impact of a structure simulated experience on students’ clinical reasoning and decision making abilities

Simulation has become an integral part of health professional training and development, within both academic and health care settings. Simulation could potentially be an effective strategy to help students develop the prerequisite level of clinical reasoning and decision making (Levett-Jones et al, 2011). However, the simulation, as an innovative learning and teaching strategy, needs to be well designed and effectively utilised to produce the required effect. This project aimed to design and evaluate the impact of a structured simulation experience on students’ clinical decision making and reasoning. This session will present 1) how the simulation experience was designed and applied to optimise the different types of decision making, 2) The impact on the decision making score and students’ satisfaction and 3) the factors that should be considered to optimise the simulation design in order to produce fruitful results. This project is based on the university strategy in utilising Technology-Enhanced Learning to enhance students’ learning experience whilst supporting the development of employability skills.