Featured ArticleMasters Nursing Students' Perceptions of an Innovative Simulation Education Experience
Section snippets
Background
Internationally, the incorporation of simulation learning experiences into undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses is becoming widely accepted (Gantt and Webb-Corbett, 2010, Harder, 2010, Hardoff and Schonmann, 2001). Within the United Kingdom and the United States, there has been substantial adoption of simulation activities in higher education nursing programs over the past decade (Cant and Cooper, 2010, Garrett et al., 2010, McCaughey and Traynor, 2010, Salminen et al., 2010). However,
Educational Strategies and the Redesigned Course
Within the 3-year master of nursing program, an advanced clinical practice course was identified for the introduction of simulation-based learning. Prior course design was based on didactic lectures and development of a professional portfolio as assessment work. The new course format comprised several layered learning opportunities aligned with Vygotsky's sociocultural learning philosophy (1978), increasingly identified as an appropriate educational framework for simulation experiences (
Method
This was a retrospective, qualitative, exploratory study evaluating students' perceptions of the use of simulation in a master of nursing course and the potential application of simulation in clinical practice. The study comprised data from 2 consecutive years after introduction of the new course format and was conducted in a large metropolitan university in Sydney, Australia. A convenience sample of masters nurses was used. Approval for the study was granted by the University Human Research
Results
Data for two consecutive academic years are reported with a sample size of 21 (100%). Only 25% of students had previous experience with simulation learning, but none had created simulation scenarios. All of the masters students enrolled in this course worked within the health care sector and were employed in high-level categories of clinical practice or education in tertiary, university-linked hospital settings or large, community-based mental health facilities.
The nursing services represented
Discussion
The study highlights the value of incorporating planned and deliberate simulation education strategies into masters of nursing courses. The educational strategies within the new course format aimed to scaffold student learning by layering exposure to simulation-related concepts and enabling creation of contextually meaningful work that was socially constructed. By guiding students to explore the patient safety and simulation literature, then facilitating scenario development via group work with
Conclusion
The study has identified how an innovative educational strategy can scaffold masters students’ learning and help experienced clinicians to gain confidence in building simulation scenarios. Further, there is clear evidence that students realized the applicability of simulation learning to a wide range of clinical contexts and had considered ways to initiate simulation education in the workplace in order to enhance practice. Masters nursing students identified simulation, as a component of the
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