There is a clear deficit in availability of clinical sites, clinical faculty, and preceptors for clinical instruction. When at clinical, the sites are short staffed and it is difficult for the sites to offer a great experience to the students with their staffing issues: including high turnover, high ratio of inexperienced nursing staff, and inexperienced nurses serving in charge and leadership roles.
The evidence states that up to 50% of clinical hours is appropriate for use in nursing education. There have been several studies that indicate the positive benefits of simulation and improved critical thinking and judgment when using clinical simulation. Please consider increasing the hours allowed for simulation in clinical instruction in order to not only address the shortage of clinical sites, but also improve student and patient outcomes.