The Impact of Perinatal Loss Nursing Simulation among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Providing careful and proper care for women experiencing perinatal loss is essential. Nurses and nursing students must be sufficiently prepared to provide adequate care. Caring for women who experienced a perinatal loss requires special education and instruction, but little is provided to nursing students. This study aimed to investigate the impact of simulation education directed toward caring for women with perinatal loss. A single-group pretest posttest study design was adopted. A convenience sample of 77 undergraduate students participated in the study. The nursing students’ nursing anxiety, confidence for clinical decision-making, communication competence, and simulative effectiveness were measured before and after the simulation. In addition, we asked students open-ended questions. No significant differences were noted in variables. However, the rank order of simulation effectiveness and result of open-ended questions had some noteworthy implications. Although there was no significant effect in results, simulation education about the perinatal loss was helpful for nursing students. Nursing students reflected on perinatal loss situation and learned that they should provide empathetical therapeutic communication based on needs of women with perinatal loss. To assure its effectiveness and to include optimal program content, a need exists to measure student reflection before and after the simulation. To fully guide and support women and their families with perinatal loss, providing standardized care is needed and in order to do that, standard for educational program regarding perinatal loss needs to be developed and delivered to nursing students as well as nurses.