Exploring Undergraduate Nursing Students' Preferences in Psychiatric Nursing Simulation Modalities

BACKGROUND

The use of high-fidelity simulators (manikins) and standardized patients (SPs) in simulation has been incorporated into many nursing schools throughout the nation to augment the clinical rotation experience. There is little to no data available on comparing undergraduate students' preferences between SPs and manikins in psychiatric nursing.

METHODS

A quantitative descriptive exploratory design was used to evaluate pre-licensure nursing students' preferences in both traditional 4-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and accelerated BSN programs (ABSN).

RESULTS

Overall, students preferred having an SP over a manikin to learn how to properly perform a nursing assessment on a psychiatric patient.

CONCLUSIONS

Standardized patients offer a more realistic experience when assessing various domains of the mental status examination and when practicing therapeutic communication techniques in psychiatric nursing. The growth of SP training programs should be fostered. Well-trained SPs are an asset to simulation, especially in psychiatric nursing.

Effect of standardized patient simulation-based pedagogics embedded with lecture in enhancing mental status evaluation cognition among nursing students in Tanzania: A longitudinal quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND

Nurses around the world are expected to demonstrate competence in performing mental status evaluation. However, there is a gap between what is taught in class and what is practiced for patients with mental illness among nursing students during MSE performance. It is believed that proper pedagogics may enhance this competence. A longitudinal controlled quasi-experimental study design was used to evaluate the effect of using standardized patient simulation-based pedagogics embedded with a lecture in enhancing mental status evaluation cognition among nursing students in Tanzania.

METHODS

A longitudinal controlled quasi-experimental study design with pre-and post-test design studied 311 nursing students in the Tanga and Dodoma regions. The Standardized Patient Simulation-Based Pedagogy (SPSP) package was administered to the intervention group. Both groups underwent baseline and post-test assessments using a Interviewer-adminstered structured questionnaire as the primary data collection tool, which was benchmarked from previous studies. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, specifically the Difference in Difference linear mixed model, and the t-test was carried out using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 25.

RESULTS

The participant's mean age was 21 years ± 2.69 with 68.81% of the students being female. Following the training Students in the intervention group demonstrated a significant increase in MSE cognition post-test, with an overall mean score of (M ± SD = 22.15 ± 4.42;p = < 0.0001), against (M ± SD = 16.52 ± 6.30) for the control group.

CONCLUSION

A significant difference exists in the levels of cognition, among nursing students exposed to Mental Status Evaluation (MSE) materials through Standardized Patient Simulation-Based Pedagogy (SPSP) embeded with lectures. When MSE materials are delivered through SPSP along with lectures, the results are significantly superior to using lectures pedagogy alone.

Nurse Educators' Pedagogical Approaches Addressing Student Nurses' Mental Health Care Competence: A Qualitative Study

Nurses' mental health care competence is vital for addressing the current mental health care crisis' demand for quality in mental health care and services. These challenges also involve educational institutions. In the mental health course of the bachelor's nursing curriculum, nurse educators face multiple tasks and challenges concerning preparing students for their clinical placement. This study aimed to explore and describe nurse educators' pedagogical approaches across three universities. The study applied a qualitative and descriptive design, and data were collected from individual qualitative interviews with 13 experienced nurse educators. A content analysis approach in lines with Graneheim and Lundman was used to analyse the data. The content analysis resulted in one theme and three categories, and each category was characterised by three subcategories. The theme intentionally preparing student nurses for mental health care competence served as an overarching theme describing the educators' overall reflections and descriptions. The three categories were: activating students for the mental health context; caring for students on a personal level; and supporting students in grasping the scope of nursing within the mental health context. These categories described the varieties and complexity of nurse educators' pedagogical approaches addressing student nurses' mental health care competence.

Development of a simulation placement in a pre-registration nursing programme

BACKGROUND

A 4-week simulation placement for first-year student nurses using an innovative blended approach was developed and delivered in one university. This was the first tariff-funded simulation placement in the UK for student nurses.

AIMS

To describe how this flexible simulation placement was developed, operated and adapted due to COVID-19 while exploring the student nurses' experiences and preparedness for practice.

METHODS

An anonymous online survey was undertaken and a placement evaluation was completed and compared with traditional clinical placement evaluations by previous students at the same point in their studies.

RESULTS

Students were as satisfied with the simulation placement as students who had attended real practice placements: 92% of students were satisfied with their simulated placement experience and 92% felt prepared for practice.

CONCLUSION

This simulated placement has been an acceptable replacement for traditional practice placements, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effects of a Complex Case Study and High-Fidelity Simulation on Mechanical Ventilation on Knowledge and Clinical Judgment of Undergraduate Nursing Students

BACKGROUND

Improving nursing students' knowledge and clinical judgment related to mechanical ventilation (MV) is paramount, considering the heightened need for MV due to the current COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. High-fidelity simulation (HFS) provides students with real-life clinical experiences that they would rarely confront in clinical training, especially complex case scenarios (such as a patient needing MV).

PURPOSE

This study assessed students' clinical knowledge and judgment after including HFS involving MV in an undergraduate nursing program.

METHODS

This was a quasi-experimental design with a convenience sample of 151 nursing students using the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric.

RESULTS

There were significant differences between the intervention and control groups in knowledge (t = 20.42; P = .001) and total clinical judgment scores (t = 19.55; P < .001) post-HFS.

CONCLUSIONS

Including a complex case study using MV and HFS significantly improved students' clinical decision-making, clinical knowledge, and self-confidence and enhanced their critical thinking, noticing, interpreting, reflecting, and responding capabilities.

Psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the clinical learning environment comparison survey

Aim

To translate The Clinical Learning Environment Comparison Survey (CLECS) into Norwegian and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Norwegian version.

Design

A cross‐sectional survey including a longitudinal component.

Methods

The CLECS was translated into Norwegian following the World Health Organization guidelines, including forward translation, expert panel, back‐translation, pre‐testing and cognitive interviewing. Nursing students at a Norwegian university college were invited to participate in the study (psychometrical testing) based on informed consent. Reliability and validity of the translated version of CLECS were investigated using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Cronbach's alpha and test–retest analysis.

Results

A total of 122 nursing students completed the questionnaire and Cronbach alphas for the CLECS subscales ranged from 0.69 to 0.89. CFA goodness‐of‐fit indices (χ²/df = 1.409, CFI = 0.915, RMSEA = 0.058) showed acceptable model fit. Test–retest ICC ranged from 0.55 to 0.75, except for two subscales with values below 0.5

Supplementing Clinical Practice in Nursing Homes With Simulation Training: A Qualitative Study of Nursing Students' Experiences

INTRODUCTION

Limited access to nurse supervisors, insufficient learning support and staff with high workloads are well documented in the research literature as barriers to nursing students´ learning in clinical practice in nursing homes. Due to these barriers nursing students may benefit from additional learning support from nurse educators during their clinical practice period.

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to explore nursing students' experiences of supplementary simulation training as a tool to support learning during clinical practice in nursing homes.

METHODS

A descriptive qualitative design was used. Twenty-seven first-year nursing students from a university college in Norway were interviewed after attending a seven-week practice period in nursing homes with supplementary simulation training. Three semi-structured focus group interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analysed using systematic text condensation.

FINDINGS

Three categories of student experiences were identified: enhancing the reasoning behind care, transferring knowledge and experiences between the learning environments and enhancing the sense of mastery.

CONCLUSION

The supplementary simulation training seemed to complement clinical practice by consolidating the students' learning during the clinical practice period, enhance the students' motivation and sense of mastery, and consequently their efforts to seek out new challenges, explore and learn both in the clinical and the simulated environment.