Background: Clinical psychomotor skills training is a core component of undergraduate nursing education. Performing technical skills competently involves the use of cognitive and motor function. The training of these technical skills is typically carried out in clinical simulation laboratories. Peripheral intravenous catheter/cannula insertion is an example of a technical skill. It is the most common invasive procedure performed in the healthcare environment. Owing to unacceptable clinical risk and complications to patients, it is imperative that practitioners performing these skills are trained effectively to provide patients with best practice and high-quality care. Technologies identified as innovative teaching methods to help train students in this skill and in the skill of venepuncture include virtual reality, hypermedia and simulators. However, little high-quality evidence exists to confirm such educational approaches are effective. Methods/design: This study is a single-centre, non-blinded, two-group, pre-test and post-test randomised control trial. The randomised control trial will investigate whether a formal structured self-evaluation of videoed performance (experimental group) has an impact on nursing students’ peripheral intravenous cannulation knowledge, performance and confidence. The control group will also be videoed performing the skill but they will not view or self-evaluate their videoed performance. The peripheral intravenous cannulation procedures will be carried out in a clinical simulation laboratory using a task trainer. The data collection tools will be completed online using survey forms. Students will be randomised into the experimental group or into the control group using simple random sampling. The primary outcome measures the nursing students’ knowledge level of the skill of peripheral intravenous cannulation insertion. Secondary outcomes evaluate procedural competence and self-reported confidence and practices in the clinical environment. Discussion: This randomised control trial will investigate whether this pedagogical approach, using video modelling and self-evaluation, will positively influence students’ knowledge, confidence and performance in the skill of peripheral intravenous cannulation. Evaluating such teaching strategies using stringent methodologies may be impactful in influencing the training provided to healthcare practitioners. Trial registration: The randomised control trial detailed in this article is an educational research study and so does not fall under the ICMJE definition of a clinical trial as “any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome”.