Anxiety and performance of nursing students in regard to assessment via clinical simulations in the classroom versus filmed assessments

Objective. To compare the level of anxiety and performance of nursing students when performing a clinical simulation through the traditional method of assessment with the presence of an evaluator and through a filmed assessment without the presence of an evaluator. Methodology. Controlled trial with the participation of Brazilian public university 20 students who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a) assessment through the traditional method with the presence of an evaluator; or b) filmed assessment. The level of anxiety was assessed using the Zung test and performance was measured based on the number of correct answers. Results. Averages of 32 and 27 were obtained on the anxiety scale by the group assessed through the traditional method before and after the simulation, respectively, while the filmed group obtained averages of 33 and 26; the final scores correspond to mild anxiety. Even though there was a statistically significant reduction in the intra-groups scores before and after the simulation, there was no difference between the groups. As for the performance assessments in the clinical simulation, the groups obtained similar percentages of correct answers (83% in the traditional assessment and 84% in the filmed assessment) without statistically significant differences. Conclusion. Filming can be used and encouraged as a strategy to assess nursing undergraduate students.