Background: Simulation allows students to develop several skills during a bed bath that are difficult to teach only in traditional classroom lectures, such as problem-solving, student interactions with the simulator (patient), reasoning in clinical evaluations, evaluation of responses to interventions, teamwork, communication, security and privacy.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a simulated bed bath scenario on improving cognitive knowledge, practical performance and satisfaction among nursing students.
Design: Randomized controlled clinical trial.
Setting: Nursing students that were in the fifth period from two educational institutions in Brazil.
Participants: Nursing students (n=58).
Method: The data were collected using the assessments of cognitive knowledge, practical performance and satisfaction were made through a written test about bed baths, an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and a satisfaction questionnaire.
Results: We identified that the acquisition and assimilation of cognitive knowledge was significantly higher in the simulation group (p=0.001). The performance was similar in both groups regardless of the teaching strategy (p=0.435). At follow-up, the simulation group had significantly more satisfaction with the teaching method than the control group (p=0.007).
Conclusion: The teaching strategy based on a simulated scenario of a bed bath proved to be effective for the acquisition of cognitive knowledge regarding bed baths in clinical practice and improved student satisfaction with the teaching process.
Keywords: Clinical skills; Nurse education; Simulation; Skin care.
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