In recent years, nurse education has emphasised the development of high cost, high-fidelity simulations
because they are considered to provide a more realistic learning experience. Integral is the facility to commit and learn
from error. Error may provide a mechanism to make low cost, low-fidelity simulations more psychologically realistic and
salient. We developed a web based medication administration simulation which included all essential cognitive elements
of medication administration task, but was “low-fidelity” in engineering terms of its portrayal of the physical world. The
simulation incorporated conditions designed to generate high rates of medication administration error. The purpose of this
study was to determine if the low cost low-fidelity simulation provided a salient, effective and psychologically realistic
learning experience for pre-registration nursing students over the long term.