The Effect of Expert Patient Simulation on Clinical Judgment: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

Background

Worldwide, quality education is one of the important tools to improve healthcare quality. Healthcare practitioners must be competent in their clinical judgement to meet clients’ need. However, poor clinical judgment skill accounts for almost one-third of all patient problems in health care. Expert patient simulation has been used as a training method for clinical judgement skill. However, according to empirical studies, using expert patients to develop clinical judgement skill is unclear. The method is effective in one situation but not in another.

Objective

To examine the effect of expert patient simulation on the clinical judgment skill of health science students of Mizan-Tepi University.

Methods

A pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was used on 92 randomly selected samples from the graduating cohort of midwifery students. The research subjects who took part in the experiment were picked at random. Tools included the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument (C-CEI^®), the Learning Satisfaction and Self-Confidence Questionnaire, and the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI). The Wilcoxon-signed rank test was utilized to compare the self-confidence scores among intervention and control group of students, and the paired sample test was used to compare clinical judgment scores. Cohen’s d was used to assess the effect size, and Spearman correlation was used to explore the association.

Results

Clinical decision-making ability and self-confidence measures revealed statistical and practical differences between before and after simulation. There was a mean difference of 2.28 (95% CI, 1.78, 2.79), t (45)=9.13, p 0.001, and an effect size of 1.3, p 0.001. A pre-and post-simulation self-confidence measure showed statistically significant improvement after simulation (W = 1, Z = −3.57, P 0.001). A moderately significant positive connection (r = 0.419, p 0.004) was also discovered.

Conclusion

The study found that human expert patient simulation is a tremendous clinical training technique for improving students’ clinical decision-making skill competency and self-confidence.

Keywords:

• effect
• patient
• simulation
• clinical judgment
• health science students

Ethical Approval

Mizan-Tepi University’s College of Health Sciences' ethical committee approved. (MW/EC/1142/11) is the number of ethical clearance. An official letter from Mizan-Tepi University’s college of health science was sent to each interested entity to gain their cooperation. To protect participants’ rights, each questionnaire included an explanation letter. In addition, all respondents were asked to participate in the study and were given thorough explanations of the study’s objectives. Each participant was granted and kept anonymous and secret by signing a consent form. The participants informed consent included the publication of anonymized responses. They were free to withdraw at any point during the interview. Their participation was not compelled in any way.

Acknowledgments

We want to thank all study participants and data collectors for their contribution to the success of our work.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare no competing interests.