Author Identifier (ORCID)
Dhanya Anand Anil Kumar’s ORCID record 
Natasya Raja Azlan’s ORCID record
Abstract
Background: Feasibility studies play a critical role in determining whether clinical or educational interventions can be implemented as intended before progressing to large-scale trials. In nursing education, many innovative teaching strategies, particularly complex interventions such as simulation-based learning, are often advanced directly to full trials without first establishing feasibility. This premature progression creates recruitment, acceptability, fidelity, and protocol adherence challenges, which may compromise study quality and valuable resources. This paper addresses this gap by clarifying the purpose and value of feasibility studies in nursing education research and outlining key considerations for designing an early-stage feasibility study that aligns with contemporary evidence and best-practice methodological guidance.
Methods: A practical, step-by-step methodology is presented for designing rigorous early- stage feasibility studies in nursing education, based on a worked example, structured around the four phases of the Medical Research Council Framework for complex interventions: (1) Development, (2) Feasibility and Piloting, (3) Evaluation, and (4) Implementation Planning.
Implication: As a methodological paper, we focus on insights rather than empirical outcomes. Examples from the working feasibility trial demonstrate how feasibility data informs judgments about readiness for a larger study. Funding bodies increasingly value feasibility evidence when assessing readiness for large-scale trials.
Conclusion: This methodological paper highlights key considerations for evaluating feasibility and demonstrates how preliminary feasibility data guides decisions about if a study is ready to progress to a larger-scale trial. The examples provided illustrate how feasibility indicators, rather than effect size estimates or hypothesis-driven analyses, support transparent and appropriate decision-making in early-phase research.
Keywords
feasibility study, nursing education research, pilot study, simulation-based learning, virtual reality
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
11-1-2026
Article Number
107295
E-ISSN
15322793
ISSN
02606917
Volume
166
PubMed ID
42508285
Publication Title
Nurse Education Today
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Nursing and Midwifery / School of Science
RAS ID
101922
Funding Information
This Higher Degree of Research (HDR) candidature was supported under the Commonwealth Government's Research Training Program, and the financial assistance provided by the Australian Government is gratefully acknowledged.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Kumar, D. a. A., Azlan, N. R., Davies, H., Kent, C. P. S., Massey, D., & Strickland, K. (2026). The value of pilot and feasibility studies in nursing education research: A worked example. Nurse Education Today, 166, Article 107295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2026.107295