Standardised simulation-based emergency and intensive care nursing curriculum to improve nursing students’ performance during simulated resuscitation: A quasi-experimental study

•A standardised high-technology simulation-based emergency and intensive care nursing curriculum consists of three modules: disaster response, emergency care, and critical care was developed in this study.•The impact of this curriculum on third-year nursing students’ nursing management and teamwork during simulated resuscitation scenarios included decreased median seconds to start compressions and defibrillation at the end of the course.•This curriculum was well received by third-year nursing students and associated with improved performance in a resuscitation simulation. Simulation-based curriculum has been demonstrated as crucial to nursing education in the development of students’ critical thinking and complex clinical skills during a resuscitation simulation. Few studies have comprehensively examined the effectiveness of a standardised simulation-based emergency and intensive care nursing curriculum on the performance of students in a resuscitation simulation. To evaluate the impact of a standardised simulation-based emergency and intensive care nursing curriculum on nursing students’ response time in a resuscitation simulation. Two-group, non-randomised quasi-experimental design. A simulation centre in a Chinese University School of Nursing. Third-year nursing students (N = 39) in the Emergency and Intensive Care course were divided into a control group (CG, n = 20) and an experimental group (EG, n = 19). The experimental group participated in a standardised high-technology, simulation-based emergency and intensive care nursing curriculum. The standardised simulation-based curriculum for third-year nursing students consists of three modules: disaster response, emergency care, and intensive care, which include clinical priorities (e.g. triage), basic resuscitation skills, airway/breathing management, circulation management and team work with eighteen lecture hours, six skill-practice hours and twelve simulation hours. The control group took part in the traditional curriculum. This course included the same three modules with thirty-four lecture hours and two skill-practice hours (trauma). Perceived benefits included decreased median (interquartile ranges, IQR) seconds to start compressions [CG 32 (25–75) vs. EG 20 (18–38); p