Strengthening Clinical Knowledge: Repeating High Fidelity Patient Simulation

Abstract

The clinical environment provides important learning opportunities for health care professions, especially nursing students. The clinical environment offers students a social learning experience not available in the classroom. Providing safe and competent patient care is a critical component of nursing education; however, approaches to preparing nursing students for practice remains relatively unchanged for the past 50 years (Gonzalez & Kardong-Edgren, 2017). Technological advances, increased imperatives for patient safety, and emphasis on evidence informed interventions means that traditional teaching strategies for preparing nursing students for clinical practice need to evolve to improve care outcomes while ensuring patient safety. High fidelity patient simulation (HFPS) is a teaching strategy increasingly used by nurse educators to provide students with opportunities to practice nursing care without risking patient injury. As in clinical education, debriefing and feedback are key elements in the development of clinical competence and mastery learning in HPFS (Taras & Everett, 2017). Many nursing programs have integrated HFPS into their curricula as a replacement or compliment to clinical practice with little research on the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings (Harder, 2010; Schiavenato, 2009). This study used qualitative methodologies to explore the value of repeating the HFPS scenario after debriefing as a pedagogical strategy for maximizing students’ learning. Two focus groups consisting of second and fourth year undergraduate nursing students’ shared their perceptions on repeated the HFPS scenario after debriefing as a pedagogical strategy for learning. Drawing on Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural Theory, Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle, and the National League for Nursing/Jeffries Simulation Model (2012) the findings revealed six (6) themes: developing competence, teamwork, cueing, anxiety, making mistakes, and feedback. Participants reported repeating the scenario reduced their anxiety and stress, while allowing them to focus on using critical thinking skills more effectively when providing patient care.