Changes in the Professional Identity and Self-Efficacy of Nursing Students Engaged in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination Using Simulation Learning.

Background: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is widely adopted in nursing education to enhance clinical skills and professionalism. With OSCE, the learning process is important, and students who underwent OSCE felt more confident and better prepared for their next clinical training.

Objectives: This study aims to clarify how the self-efficacy and professional identity of nursing students change after learning through simulation education and OSCE. Clarification of these issues will allow an OSCE design utilizing simulation-based education as will be discussed.

Methods: This study used a pre-post study design, and the participants were 74 nursing university students at one university in Japan who agreed to participate in the study. The total scores and subscale scores for professional identity and self-efficacy were compared before and after the OSCE using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated to examine the relationship between professional identity and self-efficacy.

Results: There were significant increases in self-efficacy scores (p<0.05) after OSCE, but there were no significant changes in the total scores of professional identities before and after the OSCE. Professional identity scores, such as choosing nursing again and desire to improve nursing skills, increased.

Conclusions: Simulation-based OSCE effectively enhances nursing students' self-efficacy and certain aspects of professional identity, indicating its potential for nursing education.