In a nursing skills laboratory, students practice selected tasks before or between clinical experiences. Its purpose is to make practice observable and repeatable. A laboratory session may concentrate on one component of care, while a larger simulation may ask learners to integrate several components into a whole encounter.
The National League for Nursing's simulation position statement recognizes practice of psychomotor skills among the forms of simulation. It also emphasizes purposeful curriculum integration and faculty preparation. The useful question is what the laboratory experience teaches and assesses, not simply whether a program has a room labeled “skills lab.”
Practice with a defined purpose
Before a session, identify the objective, required preparation, equipment, and supervision arrangements. A demonstration should explain the reasons behind important steps. Learners then need an opportunity to attempt the activity and receive feedback about what actually happened.
For independent practice, ask what equipment may be used, whether staff are available, and how to obtain correction. Repetition without feedback can leave a misunderstanding unnoticed. Practicing with a peer can be helpful, but a peer's approval should not be represented as an official competency decision unless the course explicitly uses that assessment method.
An illustrative learning sequence
In a fictional manual-blood-pressure laboratory, an instructor demonstrates the activity on a training arm using the course's equipment and checklist. The learner then practices while an observer records the steps completed and any prompting needed. If a step is missed, the instructor explains the issue and gives the learner another supervised attempt.
The review separates handling the equipment from interpreting the result. A learner might need practice with one even when able to explain the other. The instructor can use the next attempt to see whether the specific feedback was applied. This is an example of a learning sequence; the course and equipment instructions supply the actual procedure and assessment criteria.
Keep practice and checkoffs distinct
Ask whether a session is formative practice or a summative checkoff. During practice, stopping to ask for help may be part of learning. During a formal assessment, assistance may change what the result demonstrates. Learners should know the expectations in advance.
A useful feedback record identifies the action performed, any prompting, the specific issue to address, and the next practice opportunity. “Needs more practice” becomes more useful when it explains what needs to change. If a learner has not had access to the required equipment, address that access problem explicitly.
Connecting the laboratory to patient care
Laboratory equipment represents selected features of care; it cannot reproduce every patient response or workplace condition. Ask how the course connects laboratory learning with supervised clinical experience and how differences in equipment or workflow will be handled.
Students should also know the laboratory's rules for materials, sharps, cleaning, and reporting problems. Those local instructions govern the use of the teaching environment. A successful skills checkoff does not independently authorize a student to perform an activity in a clinical placement; the placement's supervision and program requirements still need to be clear.
Related
Nursing Simulation · Competency Validation in Nursing.
Sources
- National League for Nursing: A Vision for Teaching with Simulation (2015) (accessed 2026-09-17).