High-Fidelity Patient Simulation Increases Dietetic Students' Self-Efficacy Prior to Clinical Supervised Practice: A Preliminary Study.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the effect of high-fidelity patient simulation (HPS) on dietetics students' self-efficacy before supervised clinical practice.

METHODS: This repeated-measures study was conducted during the 2012-2013 academic year. All students in a masters coordinated program cohort (n = 19) participated in an interprofessional HPS experience before clinical supervised practice. The students completed a 4-point self-efficacy scale in which 0 = not at all confident and 3 = fully confident, at 3 time points: before and after the simulation experience and 2 weeks after beginning clinical supervised practice.

RESULTS: Using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, median confidence level differed before and after the simulation (1.5; interquartile range [IQR] 1.2-1.8; and IQR 1.3-2.0, respectively; P = .03) as well as after the simulation vs during the clinical rotation (2.2; IQR 2.0-2.4; P = .002).

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This study supports the use of HPS with dietetics students in a coordinated program. High-fidelity patient simulation increases dietetics students' self-efficacy before supervised clinical practice.