Abstract: Objective: To explore the effects of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) combined with simulation teaching among medical undergraduates' internship in neonatal department, providing evidence and references for optimizing medical internship teaching in the neonatal department. Methods: A total of 71 nursing undergraduates who interned in the neonatal department of a tertiary grade A hospital in Beijing from August 2024 to April 2025 were recruited as the participants. They were randomly divided into the experimental group (n=36) and the control group (n=35). The control group adopted the traditional teaching mode, and the experimental group additionally adopted the PBL combined with simulation teaching. The teaching effectiveness was evaluated when students completed their neonatology internship. Results: After the intervention, the theoretical scores, self-efficacy, critical thinking ability and communication ability scores of the experimental group were (81.94±9.88), (32.22±4.76), (13.25±3.49) and (90.06±12.03) points, respectively, all significantly higher than those of the control group (76.71±7.95), (27.69±6.56), (9.89±4.21) and (83.03±13.63) points (all P<0.05). Conclusion: The PBL combined with simulation teaching can effectively enhance the theoretical knowledge, self-efficacy, critical thinking, and communication abilities of undergraduate medical students in neonatal nursing. It is an effective strategy for cultivating high-quality, practical pediatric nursing talents of medical undergraduates.

Key words: simulation teaching; PBL; medical undergraduates; neonatal; nursing teaching