Background <p>Nursing education has increasingly benefited from innovative teaching methods, such as simulation-based learning, to enhance engagement, satisfaction, and self-confidence of students while managing the emotional challenges associated with clinical training.</p> Methods <p>This study was conducted as a randomised controlled and experimental trial with students who took the course of internal medicine nursing in the nursing department of the faculty of health sciences of a state university in the autumn term of the 2022–2023 academic year. The students in the intervention group were provided with the scenarios generated by the researchers using the simulation model. Before starting the simulation application, a questionnaire, the state-trait anxiety inventory, and the student satisfaction and self-confidence in learning scale were applied to both intervention and control groups and the scales were repeated after the application.</p> Results <p>The mean scores of the students in the intervention group on the student satisfaction and self-confidence in learning scale were 3.8 ± 0.6 before the simulation and increased to 4.4 ± 0.6 after the simulation (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). While their mean score of the state anxiety inventory increased from 39.5 ± 5.8 to 40.6 ± 5.3, their mean score of the trait anxiety inventory decreased from 46.6 ± 6.0 to 46.1 ± 5.5 (<i>p</i> &gt; 0.05).</p> Conclusions <p>Consequently, it was determined that simulation-assisted education did not affect the anxiety level of the students and significantly affected their levels of satisfaction and self-confidence in learning.</p> Trial registration <p>Not applicable.</p>