Title : Improving clinical simulation experience of nursing students who participate in simulation as part of their clinical experience by administering a debriefing survey
Abstract:
Simulation provides an educational opportunity for students to learn about the clinical environment, how to manage care, and make critical decisions that impact patient care. Simulation is a controlled environment where the situation can change based on those decisions and actions by the students. Learning can occur in every situation but may not have a positive outcome. This presentation discusses if students can identify if their experience helps them to care for the simulated patient and if they met the learning outcomes. Debriefing is one method that is used to help the students identify what they learned, what they did well, and ways to improve. Simulation-based learning is provided generally to adult students. Life experiences in adults add to the complexity of simulation. Certain responses can be predicted because of life experience and patterns of behaviors in adults as they mature. Students are less likely to learn if they are passive in their learning. Simulation places adult nursing students in the role of active learning. The reporting of simulation experience through debriefing can help guide clinical instructors that simulation can be more practical for learning than traditional clinical. Simulation can create the desired conditions that move beyond the opportunities provided in clinical. Debriefing is an essential methodology that encourages students to "know what", "know how", and "know why." Debriefing is a process in clinical related simulation that has the students reflect on their experience in simulation. Reflection provides the students a time to assess their ability to care for the “mock patient”, identify what went well, what needs improved, what the student learned, and then gives the opportunity to discuss anything else in relation to the experience. A welldesigned theory-based reflection debriefing contributes to improving the clinical simulation and improvement in clinical judgement of the students. If debriefing is poorly conducted, then the clinical judgement of the student will be poor. Results presented are trends identified using a debriefing survey to guide the discussion regarding their experience through reflection. Changes made to simulation were based on comments made by students, research, and utilizing INACSL standards and AACN essentials.
