Eman S. M. Ateya¹, Houria A. Mohammed², Nagwa M. Salem^3,, Samar E. Abd EL Rauof³

Background: Using simulation as an educational tool in nursing education is not a new phenomenon. It becoming increasingly prevalent in the health care practice as there is inadequate opportunities for the nursing students to practice and refine psychomotor skills in care settings. So many institutions have a mission of producing qualified nurses with the requisite knowledge, attitudes and skills which done through adopted simulation models to improve the students' performance, promote their self-confidence and minimize the challenged that facing them during providing the clinical practices. This study aimed to assess the effect of using simulation on the performance of nursing students toward postpartum period. Methods: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used which conducted at nursing skill lab of the Technical Health Institute affiliated to Minister of Health and Population in Mansoura, Egypt. Sample concluded of all enrolled students (130 females' students) in the academic year 2017/2018. One hundred students were in the experimental group and thirty students in the control group. Tools: Five tools were used for data collection: 1- Self-administered questionnaire to assess students' socio-demographic data, and academic characteristics, 2- Simulation-learning modules. 3- Self-administered questionnaire sheet to assess students' knowledge regarding the postpartum period, 4- Observation checklist to assess students' performance, 5-Students' perception scale. Results: The present study revealed that although there was no statistically significant difference between control and experimental groups in the pretest (p> 0.005), but there was a statistically significant difference between them in the immediate and follow up posttest (p<0.005). Conclusion: This study concluded that the majority of students in the experimental group had higher scores of knowledge and performance than the control group in the immediate and follows up posttest. Recommendation: This study was recommended to apply simulation learning method in educating and training the nursing students in all different fields of the nursing education.

simulation, postpartum period, knowledge, performance, nursing students