Nursing Simulation: A Review of the Past 40 Years

Abstract

Simulation, in its many forms, has been a part of nursing education and practice for many years. The use of games, computer-assisted instruction, standardized patients, virtual reality, and low-fidelity to high-fidelity mannequins have appeared in the past 40 years, whereas anatomical models, partial task trainers, and role playing were used earlier. A historical examination of these many forms of simulation in nursing is presented, followed by a discussion of the roles of simulation in both nursing education and practice. A viewpoint concerning the future of simulation in nursing concludes this article.T hroughout time, nursing educators have sought effective ways to help students to become competent nurses. Since learning takes place through cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains, nursing education has taken place in the lecture room, the psychomotor laboratory, and in the health care delivery setting. To enhance theoretical learning, simulation, in its many forms, has been added. The types of simulation used in nursing education include anatomical models, task trainers, role playing, games, computer-assisted instruction (CAI), standardized patients, virtual reality, and low-fidelity to high-fidelity mannequins. For the most part, these types of simulation, with the exception of anatomical models, task trainers, and role playing, have been introduced to nursing education in the past 40 years, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of this journal. With increasing numbers of nursing students and decreasing numbers of available clinical sites and nursing faculty, the use of simulation has become an integral part of nursing education. In this article, each of these types of simulation and their use in nursing education is discussed. This is followed by a description of the roles of simulation in both nursing education

Student self-confidence with clinical nursing competencies in a high-dose simulation clinical teaching model

“…The data presented here were collected as part of a larger study [2,21] in which students were surveyed at three time points within the two-year (four semester) baccalaureate curriculum with a 50% simulation clinical teaching model. An independent evaluation team were responsible for data collection and analysis.…”

“…The design of the course with weekly didactic time and either on-campus clinical or off-campus clinical requires good organization and communication among all participating faculty. A full description of the clinical teaching model is reported in Richardson et al [2] 1.2 Literature review…”

“…This, in combination with the escalating nurse faculty shortage, provided the major impetus for developing the high-dose clinical teaching model which substitutes 50% of the teaching hours in the core medical-surgical courses with high-fidelity simulation. [2] This paper describes undergraduate nursing students' assessment of confidence in clinical practice within this model that uses a "high-dose" of clinical simulation to replace the traditional clinical experience.…”

Simulation-Based Learning in Healthcare Ethics Education

“…Research on the use of simulation in nursing education indicates faculty and students like the strategy (Nehring & Lashley, 2009), but statistical evaluation of the efficacy of simulation is difficult, particularly in relation to its association with individual performance in the actual clinical setting. Whether simulation is used as a teaching strategy or a method of evaluation, the use of simulation to enhance clinical teaching in nursing education may increase personal confidence in clinical performance (Galloway, 2009), but the influence of simulation on competence in clinical judgment and ethical values in practice is unknown.…”

A framework for the design of computer-assisted simulation training for complex police situations

“…How CAST is applied in educational settings and to what extent varies between the different educational areas and disciplines. For example, within the medical area the use of CAST is spreading as a viable option for training the skills necessary for professional competence (Issenberg, McGaghie, Petrusa, Lee, & Scalese, 2005;Nehring, 2009). However, in order to use CAST to develop skills it has to be designed in a way that facilitates the intended educational purpose.…”