Use of virtual simulations for improving knowledge transfer among baccalaureate nursing students

Abstract

<p class="a"><strong>Background:</strong> Use of simulation has been identified as an integrative strategy to bridge theory to practice and has been identified as a need in educating nurses in the future. Use of simulation provides an opportunity for nursing students to deliberately practice skills needed to be an expert nurse. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of virtual simulations to improve knowledge transfer of nursing students in one Midwest University.</p> <p class="a"><strong>Methods:</strong> This study used a quasi-experimental design with 115 nursing students in one University. All students received education on topics related to conflict management, priority-setting, and patient safety. The intervention group also participated in three virtual simulations. To evaluate knowledge transfer, performance on an individual simulation was evaluated using the Capacity to Rescue Instrument (CRI). Comparisons were made among the two groups using ANOVA.</p> <p class="a"><strong>Results:</strong> Total CRI score for the intervention group (m=21.98, SD 4.29) was significantly higher than the score for the control group (m=20.09, SD 4.05). Therefore, students participating in virtual simulations were able to transfer the knowledge learned in the classroom better than those not participating in the virtual simulations.</p> <strong>Conclusions:</strong> Efforts for providing more opportunities for deliberate practice of critical skills (e.g. communication, conflict management, priority setting) must be provided. The addition of virtual simulations focused on the deliberate practice of specified skills improved the students’ performance. Use of a virtual environment may provide greater access to practice opportunities at a much lower cost than high fidelity simulators.<p><strong><br /></strong></p

Exploring nursing students’ transfer of peripheral venous cannulation from skills centre to the clinical setting

“…There is a need for better understanding of factors that influence skill performance in the two pedagogical settings of nursing education. [8,23,24] Previous research [25] calls for observation of actual student performance in the clinical setting after simulation-based learning. In this study, we explore the extent to which students' achievements in the simulation setting also can be observed in the clinical setting.…”

“…Many of these steps belonged to the category Management of Equipment. All the students correctly performed steps concerning preparation of equipment and tourniquet handling (1,6,8,13,25,32). All the students correctly assessed and selected a vein (7,27) in the category Assessment of a Vein.…”

“…As in the skills centre, many of these steps belonged to Management of Equipment (1,13,25,32) and concerned handling the equipment and tourniquet. All the steps (4,7,27) in Assessment of a Vein were correctly performed by all students.…”

Effectiveness of simulated delivery room classes on practical achievement and satisfaction of maternity nursing students

“…It purposely offers the opportunity for students to improve the intended learning outcomes such as clinical skill performance, knowledge acquisition, clinical reasoning ability and student satisfaction. [9][10][11][12][13][14] Yet, still there is a need for more research to prove that skills acquired in a simulated environment are transferable to real-life patient care. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of simulated delivery room classes on practical achievement and satisfaction of maternity nursing students.…”

Using an “Escape Room” toolbox approach to enhance pharmacology education

“…Those who participated in the virtual simulation demonstrated transference of knowledge which is a goal of nursing education. [6] Other strategies, such as games, have been used to engage students in a fun way as a means to enhance learning. [7,8] While simulation and games have been used in nursing education, no reports were found in the literature using an escape room concept.…”