The Concept of High-Fidelity Simulation and Related Factors in Nursing Education: A Scoping Review

High-Fidelity Simulation (HFS) is a tool used to expand nursing students’ opportunities to care for critically ill patients while also overcoming limitations often faced during clinical placements. HFS provides students with opportunity to interact within a realistic clinical environment with a patient simulator able to reproduce a wide range of clinical conditions. Professional growth and improved learning outcomes are associated with the level of fidelity in simulation; however, heterogeneity of the adopted HFS definitions and studies reporting lead to a heterogeneity of research results. The aims of this scoping review, that analyzed 69 studies, were to clarify HFS concept, document its related main features, and provide an unambiguous definition of HFS. Thematic analysis of definitions and conceptual frameworks reported in the considered studies allowed for the identification of three main themes that represent the concept of HFS in nursing education: innovative educational strategy, realistic learning experience for skills improvement, and safe experience. Debriefing and pre-briefing were respectively the most common reported features related to HFS. The definition derived from thematic analysis considers HFS as a ‘technology-based educational approach performed in a realistic and safe environment, that uses an interactive patient simulator able to reproduce life-like clinical conditions, allowing students to improve their technical and non-technical skills’.