Introduction

While undergraduate education aims to provide student nurses with a level of competence for independent practice, criticisms exist surrounding the ability of these programmes to adequately prepare graduates for the clinical skills required to optimise care. Adopting virtual simulations into nursing curricula may support greater clinical preparedness. However, learning is also cited as a social experience requiring teacher-student interaction. Therefore, a challenge exists to develop teaching strategies that balance interactive learning while also ensuring students achieve relevant competencies. Using scenario-based learning in a blended environment, this research evaluated the impact of different teaching modalities (in-person vs virtual patient case simulations) on undergraduate student nurses' perceived learning gains and self-efficacy.