Home Visit Simulation-based Earthquake Preparedness Training for Nursing Students

Home Visit Simulation-based Earthquake Preparedness Training for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Quasi-experimental Study

In earthquake preparedness, nurses, who constitute the largest group among healthcare professionals, are expected to play an active role. Public health nurses, with their population-focused protection philosophy, are at the forefront of managing the earthquake preparedness phase. Public health nurses play an active role in practices such as providing health education through home visits, identifying household risks and taking preventive measures, and organizing drills. In this context, nurses need to have sufficient knowledge and skills to take appropriate interventions. However, managing an effective preparedness process is not limited to knowledge and skills alone; it also requires the development of nurses' attitudes and beliefs towards disasters. Therefore, it is of great importance that nursing students graduate with positive attitudes and strong beliefs about earthquake preparedness, in addition to their knowledge and skills. However, developing these skills necessitates the use of experiental learning-based educational methods instead of traditional teaching methods. Therefore, this study was planned to examine the effect of home visit simulation-based earthquake preparedness training, which offers experiental learning opportunities, on nursing students' communication skills, earthquake awareness, and self-regulated learning skills.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Communication Skills; Earthquake; Self Directed Learning
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Home Simulation

Detailed Description

Even if theoretical knowledge of disaster nursing is provided within the scope of public health courses, in a subject requiring the development of complex experiental skills outside of clinical settings, such as disasters, educational methods that support learning by doing are recommended. Simulation-based learning is an educational method that supports nurses in learning and developing skills by experiencing nursing practices through the simulation of basic situations they may encounter in a hospital setting using structured scenarios. However, a systematic review examining studies on simulation-based learning indicates that the vast majority of studies were conducted in hospital-level simulations, and there are very few studies at the community level. Experiential learning is an important component of simulation-based training. Experiential learning emphasizes that learning is not only a mental activity but also includes bodily and emotional processes by integrating individuals' experiences into the learning process. In experiential learning, participants are actors playing a role assigned to them in the scenario. Thus, through the experiences they gain within the structured scenario, participants achieve cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning objectives, and the learning process gains a holistic quality. There are few community-based studies that directly involve participants in the scenario using simulation-based experiential learning. Therefore, this planned study aims to enable nursing students to achieve cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning objectives in home visit and earthquake preparedness processes by implementing earthquake preparedness training based on home visit simulations through experiential learning. Furthermore, the study aims to improve students' skills in evaluating real-life environments, identifying risks, and implementing protective measures through home visit simulations. The findings are important both for the design of educational programs and for strengthening the role of nurses in community-based disaster response and preparedness processes. Thus, the study aims to provide concrete and applicable suggestions for both academic literature and practical applications.

In the 2025-2026 spring semester, fourth-year nursing students taking the public health nursing course were given earthquake preparedness training based on home visit simulations. The scenario was created by the researchers and expert opinions were obtained. Data collection tools were applied for a pre-test before the scenario. The scenario was carried out in stages as two home visits. The first home visit aimed to focus on initiating the home visit, data collection, and in-home risk assessment, while the second home visit aimed to focus on earthquake preparedness health education applications. In the study, communication skills, awareness of earthquake preparedness, and self-regulated learning skills were applied before and after the home visit simulation. The applications were carried out in the Preventive Health Practices Laboratory of the Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Duzce University. The laboratory was arranged as a simulation of a home environment consisting of a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The applications were recorded by a recording device in this room. The simulation stages consisted of Briefing, Scenario, and Debriefing. The first home visit was planned to last a maximum of 10 minutes, and the second home visit a maximum of 15 minutes. Analysis sessions were conducted in groups of 10, with each session lasting approximately 30 minutes. Institutional permission was obtained for the research, informed consent was obtained from the students, and permission to use the scales was secured.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 39
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey (Türkiye)
  • Düzce
    • Center, Düzce, Turkey (Türkiye), 81100
      • Duzce University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being a nursing student
• Volunteering to participate in the study
• Being able to understand and answer the study questions
• Completing all data collection forms

Exclusion Criteria:

• Refusing to participate in the study
• Incomplete completion of data collection forms
• Withdrawal from the study at any stage
• Having communication problems that may prevent participation in the study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Simulation group; Participants in the intervention group participated in two home visit simulations where the first home visit, where they acted as a public health nurse, lasted a maximum of 10 minutes, and the second home visit lasted a maximum of 15 minutes. Debriefings averaging 30 minutes were conducted at the end of each visit.	Behavioral: Home Simulation; Participants conducted home visits in a simulated home environment. The first home visit involved data collection and assessment of indoor earthquake risks. The second home visit involved earthquake preparedness training (preparing an earthquake kit, identifying a survival triangle area, demonstrating the "drop, cover, and hold" procedure, etc.).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Earthquake Preparedness Attitudes and Beliefs	Earthquake Preparedness Attitudes and Beliefs Scale:This scale is used to evaluate individuals' attitudes and beliefs regarding earthquake preparedness behaviors. The scale consists of four sub-dimensions: attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention. Consisting of a total of 8 items, the scale is structured using a 7-point Likert type, with items scored between "1=Strongly disagree" and "7=Strongly agree". The minimum possible score on the scale is 8, and the maximum score is 56. A higher score indicates that individuals have positive attitudes and strong beliefs regarding earthquake preparedness behaviors.	Baseline and immediately after the simulation intervention
The Communication Skills	The Communication Skills Scale was adapted into Turkish by and to assess individuals' communication skills. The scale consists of four subdimensions: competence, barriers, body language, and valuing. It includes a total of 36 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "1 = Strongly disagree" to "5 = Strongly agree." Some items are reverse scored. The minimum possible score on the scale is 36, while the maximum possible score is 180. Higher scores indicate better communication skills and more effective interpersonal communication.	Baseline and immediately after the simulation intervention
The Self-Directed Learning Skills	The Self-Directed Learning Skills Scale was developed by and to evaluate individuals' self-directed learning skills. The scale consists of four subdimensions: motivation, self-monitoring, self-control, and self-confidence. It includes a total of 21 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "1 = Never" to "5 = Always." The minimum possible score on the scale is 21, while the maximum possible score is 105. Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-directed learning skills and greater ability to manage one's own learning process effectively.	Baseline and immediately after the simulation intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Duzce University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 4, 2026
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 12, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): October 10, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 18, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 16, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 17, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 17, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 16, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: simulation; home visiting; communication skills; self directed learning; eathquake awareness
• Other Study ID Numbers: Duzce-U-merve0006

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No