The purpose of this study was to investigate RN-BSN students' clinical nursing competency in order to establish baseline data for developing nursing competency based clinical education for RN-BSN students.

A survey of 1,453 RN-BSN students from 21 nursing schools was conducted using a self administered questionnaire.

The mean score of the clinical nursing competency was 2.93. The scores for competency were shown as 2.91 for nursing management, 2.94 for developing professionalism & legal implementation, 2.95 for critical thinking, 2.96 for teaching & leadership, and data collection, basic nursing care, and communication were above 3.00. The items perceived as insufficient competency were physical examination and observation & monitoring in data collection, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, psycho-social care, spiritual care, hospice in basic nursing care, application of knowledge and theory, formulating nursing diagnosis, nursing care planning in critical thinking, education material development, leadership, delegation in teaching and leadership, analysis of organization, planning, infection control, role & job description, evaluation of nursing activities in nursing management, quality improvement, and research in developing professionalism and legal implementation.

This study will contribute to developing a nursing competency based on clinical education for RN-BSN students who have various education needs and clinical backgrounds.

The purpose of this study was to develop a critical thinking disposition scale for nursing students.

The developmental process was construction of a conceptual framework, development of preliminary items, verification of content validity, development of secondary items, verification of construct validity and extraction of final items. The conceptual framework and first preliminary 60 items were obtained through a review of relevant literature and the development of critical disposition scales by 10 researchers who had been studying critical thinking for one year. These items were reviewed by five specialists for content validity and finally 55 items were chosen. The data was collected from October 1 to 15, 2004 and was analyzed using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha with the SPSS program. The subjects were composed of 560 Bachelor of Science nursing students from 8 nursing schools.

There were 35 final items which were sorted into 8 factors. The factors were identified as ‘ intellectual integrity(6 items)’, ‘ creativity(4 items)’, ‘ challenge(6 items)’, ‘ open-mindedness(3 items)’, ‘ prudence(4 items)’, ‘ objectivity(4 items)’, ‘ truth seeking(3 items)’ and ‘ inquisitiveness(5 items)’. The cumulative percent of variance was 55.107%. The reliability of the scale, Cronbach's alpha was .892 and the factors' ranged from .562-.836.

The result of this study could be used for measuring critical thinking dispositions of nursing students. However, for further validity and reliability, repeated research is necessary.

Clinical training for nursing students is limited to rudimentary skills to avoid potential risks. Simulation-Based Training (SBT) can overcome the shortcomings of clinical training. We evaluated the educational effect of SBT for obstetrical nursing students using high-fidelity simulation courses.

We developed a simulation program for obstetrical nursing students to practice nursing skills that are necessary to provide quality care. The program consisted of four sessions. 1st: An orientation and a preliminary test. 2nd: Learning core skills required in obstetrical nursing. 3rd: Testing each student with scenario. 4th: Providing a debriefing session. At the beginning of the program, students were surveyed about their self-confidence in obstetrical nursing care, and at the end of the program, they were surveyed about the adequacy of SBT as well as self-confidence.

Students’ self-confidence showed a significant difference before and after simulation. Mean adequacy of SBT was 7.15±1.35 (out of 10). Most students became more interested in Women’s Health Nursing after SBT.

The results from evaluating the effects of simulation-based obstetrical nursing training show that SBT provides invaluable clinical experience for obstetrical nursing students by overcoming the lack of actual clinical involvement in clinical training programs.