• Simulation develops nursing students’ autonomy, confidence, clinical reasoning, communication, and leadership. • Instructor feedback during debriefing promotes critical reflection, whereas peer feedback may reinforce self-criticism. • Scenario realism and structured prior preparation enhance immersion, engagement, and performance quality. • Collaboration skills are strengthened through simulation, though a gap persists between theoretical knowledge of teamwork and its practical implementation. • Emotional regulation support and progressive simulation exposure are needed for optimal learning. Simulation in nursing education develops students’ technical and transversal competencies through immersive, safe environments. This study aimed to describe and understand the lived experiences of undergraduate nursing students regarding simulation-based learning at a private university in Beirut, Lebanon. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted with 18 undergraduate nursing students (across three academic levels: L2, L4, and L6), and participants were recruited through non-probabilistic purposive sampling. Participants were recruited through non-probabilistic purposive sampling. Data were collected through in-depth, face-to-face, individual interviews using a semi-structured interview guide, and analysed following Miles and Huberman’s (2003) three-step approach. Three themes emerged: competency development (autonomy, confidence, clinical reasoning, communication, leadership, collaboration), importance of debriefing (constructive feedback, critical reflection, differentiated impact of peer versus instructor feedback), and realism/immersion impact (perception of realism, prior preparation, emotional engagement). Structured briefings/debriefings with guidelines for constructive peer feedback, optimized scenario realism through simulated patients, progressive simulation exposure from non-emergency to critical scenarios, and emotional regulation support are recommended to enhance simulation effectiveness in nursing education
Merheb et al. (Wed,) studied this question.