Self-Assessment of Intensive Care Nurses’ Team Performance Compared with Intensive Care Nursing Students

Abstract

Study/Objective: Test a model that was developed to compare PC screen-based vs high-fidelity simulation supported training for basic trauma skills in terms of learning and cost outcomes. Background: As disasters increase in numbers and intensity, more attention is being paid to trauma skills training for health workers. There is a wide spectrum of simulation types, and while high-fidelity simulation is known to be effective, it is also very costly. Methods: The Nursing Education Simulation Framework guided the development of a model to compare the two simulation methods in terms of confidence, knowledge, skills, and cost outcomes. Participants (N = 70) were nurses and EMT's from the civilian and military sectors. All underwent pre-testing, random assignment to PC screen-based or high-fidelity simulation training groups, trauma skills training, immediate post and then post-post (6-12-weeks) evaluation. The evaluator was blinded to the simulation training type for each participant. Results: There were no differences in the learning outcomes between the PC screen-based vs high-fidelity groups. Both groups increased their confidence, knowledge, and skills. However, the cost of high-fidelity simulation was ten times that of PC screen-based instruction per unit. Conclusion: For basic trauma nursing skills, a less costly method of instruction can achieve the same learning outcome results. Study/Objective: The study aims to explore whether there are differences between intensive care nurses' (ICN) team performance and ICN-students, measured by a validated instrument. Background: Due to lack of ICN-students working experiences, a joint high-fidelity, simulator-based training can bridge the gap between nursing school and appropriate hospital practice. Data originated from a training project in Norway. ICNs from a hospital intensive care unit collaborated with educators from a nearby university to improve ICN-students team performance, to make those students better prepared for practice. Methods: The study used an explorative design. Thirty registered nurses, who were allocated into five teams representing intensive care specialty, participated in a high-fidelity, simulationbased pneumonia with acute respiratory failure setting. Each team consists of five ICN's and one ICN-student. The Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale was used to measure team performance. We used the Mann-Whitney U test to compare and analyze the teams' self-assessment. Results: Statistical significant differences were found between ICN-students and ICN's self-assessments on two variables: 1) The team prompts each other to attend to all significant clinical indicators throughout the procedure/intervention; and 2) When team members are actively involved with the patient, they verbalize their activities aloud. ICN's perceived and gave their support to these two assertions to a greater extent than ICN-students. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that ICNs and ICN students perceive aspects of team performance in a joint team training setting differently. IC...