Breaking Barriers with Simulation-Enhanced Interprofessional Education: Transforming Interprofessional Education Through Simulation.

Simulation-enhanced interprofessional education (SIM-IPE) offers an avenue to teach and facilitate communication, collaboration, and teamwork while gaining an appreciation for the unique roles different healthcare professionals from a variety of settings bring to such learning experiences. This article provides an initial overview of the current trajectory of interprofessional simulation-based education in healthcare practice. An introduction to the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Core Competencies and the Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice will have a TM after Practice in superscript. Practical applications of integrating Sim-IPE into the varied workplaces where nurses are leaders within interdisciplinary teams are provided.

Integration of Motivational Interviewing Within Prelicensure Nursing Programs: A National Survey.

BACKGROUND: Vital to the nurse-patient partnership is the use of active listening and a clear understanding of the patient's health care goals. Motivational Interviewing is an evidence-based, patient-centered communication technique that assists patients in self-identifying and committing to health behavior change. PURPOSE: This study explored whether, where, and how Motivational Interviewing is integrated into current prelicensure nursing curricula. METHODS: An exploratory, descriptive study incorporated a researcher-developed survey. RESULTS: Participants (N = 112) represented 5 types of prelicensure nursing programs from across the United States. Forty-one participants reported using Motivational Interviewing within their program with accreditation being the primary rationale. Seventy-one participants reported not integrating Motivational Interviewing within their program with lack of knowledge being the primary rationale. CONCLUSION: Further research on optimizing the integration of Motivational Interviewing educational content and practice into all levels and specialty areas of nursing education would help to identify best practices.

Developing an immersive virtual reality medication administration scenario using the nominal group technique.

AIM: This paper aims to describe how the Nominal Group Technique was applied to obtain focused content to develop medication administration error scenarios for future use to educate practicing RNs with immersive virtual reality simulation. BACKGROUND: In the United States, medication errors account for up to $46 million in daily loss to hospital operational budgets. Each phase of prescribing, dispensing, administration, monitoring, and reconciliation is crucial in reducing potentially life-threatening outcomes associated with medication errors. Registered Nurses are responsible for safely administering diverse classifications of medications to patients in various healthcare settings. However, human and system factors can contribute to the exposure of hospitalized patients to a medication error. Virtual reality simulation-based education can be a methodology to educate practicing Registered Nurses on safe medication practices. DESIGN: A Nominal Group Technique process was used to generate consensus from participating Registered Nurses on human and system factors that can contribute to medication administration errors. METHODS: The process consisted of (a) preparation, (b) running the group with an introduction of the subject, (c) generation of ideas, (d) listing of ideas, (e) discussion of ideas, (f) ranking of top ideas, (g) voting on top ideas, (h) discussion of the vote outcome, and (i) re-ranking and rating the top items. Human and system factor idea items encompassed medication errors during ordering, prescribing, or administering medications. Both novice and experienced Registered Nurses rank-ordered these factors as those most likely to encounter or which would most likely occur during one working shift. RESULTS: Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the findings when grouped by human and system factor categories. Non-parametric testing with a Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted to compare the human and system factors by categories and years of Registered Nurse experience. Findings revealed that the factors of Time Management: getting behind, hurried, urgent (KW-H 11.2, df 4, p = .025) and Right Medication: medications have similar look and sound-alike names (KW-H 11.1, df 4, p = .025) impacted safe medication administration for both the novice and experienced nurse. CONCLUSION: The NGT process identified human and system factors contributing to errors and impacting safe medication administration practices. Findings will support the creation of medication administration scenarios for use with immersive virtual reality simulation.

Exploring student perceptions of virtual simulation versus traditional clinical and manikin-based simulation.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic immediately changed the way nursing programs provide clinical experiences for pre-licensure nursing programs. Healthcare organizations closed access to clinical experiences for nursing students and universities immediately shifted to remote learning and online virtual simulation. PURPOSE: This research examined students' perceptions of virtual simulation in meeting their learning needs when compared to traditional clinical experiences and manikin-based simulation environments. METHODS: A retrospective multi-site exploratory, descriptive design had 97 participants complete the Clinical Learning Environment Comparison Survey 2.0 after having experienced virtual simulation. A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine differences among participants when grouped by degree program and level/term within the nursing program. RESULTS: Traditional clinical experiences met students' perceived learning needs for all degree programs of study for subscale items of communication, nursing process, holism, critical thinking, and self-efficacy. When grouped by level/term, traditional clinical experiences met all students' perceived learning needs for every subscale item. Manikin-based simulation met students' perceived learning needs for subscale items of critical thinking and teaching-learning dyad while virtual simulation met perceived learning needs for subscale items of nursing process, critical thinking, self-efficacy, and teaching-learning dyad. CONCLUSION: While traditional clinical learning experiences remains the "gold standard", manikin-based and virtual simulation do meet specific important learning needs.

Teaching Newly Licensed RNs to Build an Interprofessional Collaborative Practice.

BACKGROUND: Recommendations for health care institutions to evaluate the effectiveness of nurse internship programs in facilitating the acquisition of an interprofessional collaborative practice exist. This pilot project explored the effectiveness of simulation-based education compared with online education on inter-professional socialization and collaboration among newly licensed RNs transitioning into medical-surgical practice. METHOD: An experimental repeated-measures design examined professional nursing practice attributes of values, attitudes, and behaviors along with interprofessional collaboration core competencies. Participants (n = 29) were randomized into either a control group (nurse internship with online interprofessional education) or an experimental group (nurse internship with simulation-based interprofessional education). RESULTS: Changes in interprofessional role socialization and valuing occurred as measured by the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale. Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey data demonstrated a change in interprofessional collaboration. CONCLUSION: Findings support how educators in the health care setting can consider the integration of interprofessional education teaching methodologies into nurse internship programs. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(7):331-337.].

Telehealth Simulation With Motivational Interviewing: Impact on Learning and Practice.

BACKGROUND: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act increased numbers of insured individuals and demands for health care cost reductions. A national call for nursing education to focus on health promotion activities exists. Nurse educators can address this shift in health care by including motivational interviewing (MI), a health promotion technique, in the curriculum. METHOD: This exploratory descriptive pilot survey examined postlicensure nursing students' perceptions and self-reported behaviors following an online synchronous telehealth simulation-based experience in which they practiced MI. RESULTS: The survey yielded a 45% (n = 10) response rate. All participants agreed the experience was beneficial to their learning and provided insights on a new clinical practice environment. Eighty percent of participants would have liked to have learned MI in their prelicensure program, and 50% of participants have integrated it in their current practice. CONCLUSION: This tele-health simulation-based experience positively affected the learning and behaviors of postlicensure nursing students. [J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(4):221-224.].

Peer-Assisted Learning With Simulation for Examination and Transition Success.

This article reports how one pilot project explored prelicensure baccalaureate nursing students' perceptions of peer-assisted learning combined with simulation-based education to prepare for and enhance readiness for programmatic exit and national examinations. A convergent parallel mixed-methods study design was used to address the research questions. A nonprobability convenience purposive sample of 17 prelicensure baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in a programmatic synthesis course participated. Findings demonstrate how prelicensure nursing students, despite experiencing varied levels of anxiety, are ready to engage in peer-assisted learning strategies that incorporate simulation-based education to gain additional preparation for both programmatic and licensure examinations. In an era where hospitals are onboarding newly licensed nurses with simulation, hospital educators and specialists in the health care industry can look to the literature on anxiety and teaching preferences to determine opportunities to integrate peer learning and simulation within transition into practice programs. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2019;50(3):115-120.].

Acquisition of Fire Safety Knowledge and Skills With Virtual Reality Simulation.

BACKGROUND: Prelicensure nursing students seeking to enter perioperative nursing need preparatory fire safety knowledge and skills training to participate as a member of an operating room (OR) team. PURPOSE: This pilot study examined the effectiveness of the Virtual Electrosurgery Skill Trainer (VEST) on OR fire safety skills among prelicensure nursing students. METHODS: An experimental pretest-posttest design was used in this study. Twenty nursing students were randomized to a control or an intervention group. Knowledge and skills acquisition of OR fire safety were assessed. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant findings in knowledge for either group. Fisher exact test demonstrated significant relationships between the skills performance criteria of following emergency procedures for a fire and demonstrating PASS (pull-aim-squeeze-sweep) technique (P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: Academic and hospital educators may consider incorporating virtual reality simulation to teach fire safety education or reinforce general fire safety practices to nursing students and novice nurses.

Electronic Charting During Simulation: A Descriptive Study.

Informatics is a core competency for nursing students recognized by several national organizations in healthcare and nursing education. Nurses must be able to use information and technology to communicate and manage knowledge in support of clinical decisions. Many hospitals either limit or deny nursing students' access to the electronic health record during traditional clinical learning. Simulation-based learning experiences are an alternative to traditional clinical experiences. What remains unclear is how nursing programs are incorporating electronic health record platforms within simulation. This study used a descriptive design to survey nursing programs exploring electronic health record use within simulation-based learning experiences in the classroom, skills laboratory, or simulation laboratory settings. Findings of the survey show that 56.2% of participants used an electronic health record in the classroom, skills laboratory, or simulation laboratory for simulation. Electronic health record use is gaining momentum via simulation-based learning experiences and students are not only documenting but also gathering data and appraising patient data for meaningful use to inform patient care decisions and promote clinical readiness.

Effective Learning of Interprofessional Teamwork.

Educators are actively identifying optimal teaching-learning strategies that afford future health care professionals opportunities to acquire skills necessary to function as a member of an interprofessional team. This article describes the development of an interprofessional team learning experience consisting of students from 6 health professions programs within 1 college of health professions. Student achievement of interprofessional team competencies were evaluated in a pretest-posttest format. Essential components of a 7-week program, teaching methodologies, and course evaluations are presented.

Capturing readiness to learn and collaboration as explored with an interprofessional simulation scenario: A mixed-methods research study.

BACKGROUND: Didactic lecture does not lend itself to teaching interprofessional collaboration. High-fidelity human patient simulation with a focus on clinical situations/scenarios is highly conducive to interprofessional education. Consequently, a need for research supporting the incorporation of interprofessional education with high-fidelity patient simulation based technology exists. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore readiness for interprofessional learning and collaboration among pre-licensure health professions students participating in an interprofessional education human patient simulation experience. METHODS: Using a mixed methods convergent parallel design, a sample of 53 pre-licensure health professions students enrolled in nursing, respiratory therapy, health administration, and physical therapy programs within a college of health professions participated in high-fidelity human patient simulation experiences. Perceptions of interprofessional learning and collaboration were measured with the revised Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and the Health Professional Collaboration Scale (HPCS). Focus groups were conducted during the simulation post-briefing to obtain qualitative data. Statistical analysis included non-parametric, inferential statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. RESULTS: Pre- and post-RIPLS demonstrated pre-licensure health professions students reported significantly more positive attitudes about readiness for interprofessional learning post-simulation in the areas of team work and collaboration, negative professional identity, and positive professional identity. Post-simulation HPCS revealed pre-licensure nursing and health administration groups reported greater health collaboration during simulation than physical therapy students. Qualitative analysis yielded three themes: "exposure to experiential learning," "acquisition of interactional relationships," and "presence of chronology in role preparation." Quantitative and qualitative data converged around the finding that physical therapy students had less positive perceptions of the experience because they viewed physical therapy practice as occurring one-on-one rather than in groups. CONCLUSION: Findings support that pre-licensure students are ready to engage in interprofessional education through exposure to an experiential format such as high-fidelity human patient simulation.

Preparing the novice critical care nurse: a community-wide collaboration using the benefits of simulation.

This article describes how exploring the need for a continuing education course for the critical care nursing community turned into the development of the Preparing the Critical Care Nurse program. The course offered an opportunity for collaboration between area hospitals and a college of nursing by facilitating the transition of undergraduate nurses to the critical care setting using high-fidelity simulation. Course development, implementation, evaluation, and suggestions for similar courses in the future are presented. Goals of the simulation component of the course were evaluated and addressed the participants' self-confidence and satisfaction with learning through simulation. A 6-month postevaluation provided insight into the participants' impressions of simulation as a learning tool as they currently practice critical care nursing.