ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of using senior-level nursing students as teachers to junior-level students in simulated learning was examined in a prelicensure nursing program. Simulation requires considerable financial resources in faculty time and effort. It was theorized that using senior students as teachers for junior students in peer-assisted simulation for learning health assessment clinical skills would offer an equally effective learning experience as faculty instructors. METHOD: A total of 60 junior-level students were randomized into a simulated learning experience taught by 20 senior-level students or nursing faculty. RESULTS: Evaluation of junior students' clinical performance, postsimulation debriefing assessment, and satisfaction with the simulation learning experience indicated that senior nursing students were equally effective as faculty simulation instructors. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that the Senior Students as Teachers program, using the train-the-trainer model, was successful in preparing students as simulation instructors and has the potential for reducing faculty time and cost, as well as enhance student peer-to-peer learning.
Subject(s)
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate , Simulation Training , Students, Nursing , Adult , Clinical Competence , Feasibility Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Personal Satisfaction , Videotape Recording , WorkforceABSTRACT
Organizations are looking to new graduate nurses to fill expected staffing shortages over the next decade. Creative and effective onboarding programs will determine the success or failure of these graduates as they transition from student to professional nurse. This longitudinal quantitative study with repeated measures used the Casey-Fink Graduate Nurse Experience Survey to investigate the effects of offering a prelicensure extern program and postlicensure residency program on new graduate nurses and organizational outcomes versus a residency program alone. Compared with the nurse residency program alone, the combination of extern program and nurse residency program improved neither the transition factors most important to new nurse graduates during their first year of practice nor a measure important to organizations, retention rates. The additional cost of providing an extern program should be closely evaluated when making financially responsible decisions.
