The Effect of High-Fidelity Simulation in Improving the Physical Examination Skills of Nursing Students

Background: The mastering of physical examination skills is a main component of nursing education. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a high-fidelity simulator to develop the skills of nursing students in the auscultation of lung and bowel sounds. Subjects: From a total of 191 nursing students enrolled in a Physical Assessment Course, randomized sampling was used to determine the 36 students comprising the sample group. Tools: The data were collected by the researchers by using “The Personal Information Form”, “The Implementation Feedback Form” and “The Skill Evaluation Form”. Results: The percentage of students able to partially achieve the steps of the process included: 85.71% able to listen to lung sounds from the listening points, 48.57% able to distinguish wheezing sounds, 40% able to listen to bowel sounds from each quadrant and 48.57% able to note the number of bowel sounds in each quadrant. At the same time, 40% of the students stated that they were very anxious during the application and could not do what was required, 45.7% stated that the application gave them experience, 57.1% found no negative aspects of the application and 14.3% recommended that such applications be performed more frequently. Conclusion: The study illustrated that in order to develop physical examination skills, integration of knowledge and skills can be realized by including high-fidelity simulators in the nursing education process.