Simulation In Nursing Education
Literature Review: Effectiveness of Simulation in Nursing Education
Name:
Institution:
Simulation has been found to be effective in teaching and learning in training of nurses. Many scholars have associated simulation with successes in training of competent nurses. However, simulation has also been criticized by some scholars. Several scholarly articles and sources have been used to write the literature review concerning the use of simulation in nursing education.
The Challenge in Nursing Education
The care for patients requires adequate nursing skills and knowledge, an aspect that require the use of active learning in training institutions. Active learning is preferred by many nursing instructors and scholars since it provides …show more content…
students with adequate competence to care for patients. In addition, the nurses are challenged by difficult situations in the clinical areas during delivery of services to clients. The challenges require the nurses to make efficient and accurate clinical judgments in order to manage the patients. The nursing knowledge, skills, and experience is obtained from both clinical and classroom areas. Therefore, it is important for students and instructors to fill the gap that exist between theoretical knowledge and the application in the real patient setting. Nursing education helps to facilitate the development of nursing knowledge, skills, decision-making skills and experience among nursing students (Aebersold & Tschannen, 2013).
However, according to Yuan, Williams, & Fang (2012), a problem has arisen where the students face challenges in finding adequate clinical experience due to several challenges. Also, the instructors have difficulties in providing adequate clinical training for the students, which can limit the competencies of the nursing students in patient management. One of the things that have created difficulties in finding enough time for clinical experience involves the short clinical placements. Most of the training curriculums provide little time for clinical placements. Also, some of the training institutions limit the time for clinical placement in order to lower the cost of training. Another challenge involves the short stay of patients in the hospital, which gives the students little time to interact with the patients. The presence of modern technology in health care has helped to quicken the recovery of patients hence stays in the hospitals for a short time. In addition, Harris, Pittiglio, Newton, & Moore (2014) shows that using the real patient to practice the classroom knowledge can affect the safety of the patient as well as the students. Moreover, the concept of privacy should also be adhered to by nurses hence the instructors may not find a suitable environment to train the students.
The Solution (Simulation)
Therefore, due to these challenges the nurse educators and training institutions have devised some solutions to provide proper training for the students. The solution involves the adoption of simulation as a method of learning and teaching. Simulation resembles the clinical area where the students train on performing nursing procedures. The simulated learning and teaching can occur in skills laboratories or by use of designed computer programs (Rutherford-Hemming, 2012).
Evidence on Effectiveness of Simulation
A systematic study, to review the literature, was done by Yuan et al.
(2012), to identify the effectiveness of simulation in nursing education. The study indicated that the use of simulation when teaching nursing students helps to build competence and confidence in delivery of nursing services to patients. The participants in the reviewed studies involved nurse graduates and nursing students who utilized simulation as a learning method. It also included the nurses who used simulated environment for training on patient care. The review showed that the utilization of simulation as a method of teaching and learning helped to engage the learners actively during training sessions. In addition, the students exhibited abilities to identify and interpret patient issues as well as make appropriate decisions to solve the issues. The simulated learning environment helped them to learn the nursing skills in confidence and safe manner. Furthermore, the study by Reeves (2008) indicated that the students and the nurse graduates were able to develop adequate psychomotor, affective and cognitive skills through a safe environment that resembled a real patient setting. Moreover, according to a study by Fero et al. (2010), the students learn to make decisions on patient care in an independent and autonomous manner. Also, the simulated environment of patient care helped in developing the analytical skills of the nurses hence ability to identify efficient nursing …show more content…
interventions.
Rutherford-Hemming (2012) carried out another study to determine the use of simulation in nursing education. The findings of the study indicate that the use of simulation in nursing education provides a safe learning and teaching environment. In addition, the teacher can demonstrate various nursing skills and procedures to the students comfortably. Also, a study by Wilson, Klein, & Hagler (2014) reveals that simulation helps to utilize the concept of meaningful learning. According to Rutherford-Hemming (2012), the use of simulation helped the learners to learn new nursing knowledge that can be applied in real patient care.
Many institutions that train nurses are adopting effective methods of learning and instruction in order to enable the students to gain adequate knowledge and skills of nursing. The institutions are utilizing methods that allow the students to learn the techniques of applying knowledge from the classroom in the real patient setting. One of these methods that many nursing education institutions have adopted involves simulation. The curriculum developers have identified simulation as an educational strategy that helps to achieve the best outcomes since it incorporates active learning process. The educational centers use human simulation to mimic the real clinical area, which gives the students clinical experience in a safe environment (Hauber, Cormier, & Whyte Iv, 2010). The simulated environment also allows the students to practice the clinical procedures repetitively for proper understanding without harm to patients. Repetitive learning helps the learners to master the skills, which they can efficiently and confidently apply in the management of patients (Rutledge et al., 2008).
Learning and teaching occurs best when the four facets of nursing education are utilized. The best instructional methods involve those that incorporate the four aspects of the learning process. Therefore, simulation is one of the teaching methods that incorporate the four aspects to provide students with adequate knowledge, skills and experience in management of patients. Simulation incorporates the emotional component of learning, which is one of the facets. Also, simulation helps to develop the technical competence through repetitive practice of psychomotor skills. Furthermore, the teachers utilize their nursing expertise to train students with an aim of meeting the educational needs. Moreover, simulation allows the instructors to teach nursing students in learning that is situated in the context of nursing. Therefore, the use of simulation allows the nursing students to obtain adequate competence in management of patients with various health needs (Cant & Cooper, 2010).
A systematic review of the literature done by Aebersold & Tschannen (2013) indicates that the use of simulation is an effective teaching and learning method. The review shows that simulation allows the teachers to teach the expected practice guidelines during provision of nursing services. Also, the learners get to learn the steps of performing some nursing procedure, an aspect that helps to boost the quality of nursing services. According to this review, the use of simulation is more advantageous as compared to other methods of learning and teaching in nursing education.
Criticism of Simulation
Although many scholars have attributed the use of simulation to producing good outcomes in nursing education, some researchers have carried out studies that criticize the use of simulation. A study conducted by Secomb, Mckenna, & Smith (2012) aimed to critique the use of simulation in nursing education. The study to establish the effectiveness of simulation utilized a computer-based program and a skills laboratory as the area of study. The participants in this study involved nursing students who were required to develop and use cognitive skills in implementing nursing interventions. The researcher measured the cognitive skills before and after the experiment on simulation. The findings of the investigation showed that learning in the simulated environments did not increase the development cognitive skills among the participants. Furthermore, the author concluded that simulation is insufficient to improve the development of cognitive skills among nursing students at higher levels of learning. The authors argued that educators should not consider simulation as an effective strategy for teaching and learning unless there is adequate evidence to show its effectiveness.
Analysis of the Literature Review
According to my view, I support simulation as the effective method of learning and teaching in nursing education. I support the use of simulation as a solution to the problem of inadequate clinical time in the training of nursing students. The literature review above agrees with my view. The authors of the articles used in the literature review provide valid information about the effectiveness of simulation. Also, the articles used shows adequate information based on research in the nursing education. The authors of the articles present the information in a logical and academic manner, which makes it easy to understand the use of simulation in nursing education. Although some authors critiques simulation, it remains the method to provide ample time for the nursing students to acquire nursing knowledge, skills, experience and competency.
References
Aebersold, M., & Tschannen, D.
(2013). Simulation in Nursing Practice: The Impact on Patient Care. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18(2), 1–1.
Cant, R. P., & Cooper, S. J. (2010). Simulation-based learning in nurse education: systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(1), 3–15.
Fero, L. J., O’Donnell, J. M., Zullo, T. G., Dabbs, A. D., Kitutu, J., Samosky, J. T., & Hoffman, L. A. (2010). Critical thinking skills in nursing students: comparison of simulation-based performance with metrics. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(10), 2182–2193.
Harris, M. A., Pittiglio, L., Newton, S. E., & Moore, G. (2014). Using Simulation to Improve the Medication Administration Skills of Undergraduate Nursing Students. Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(1), 26–29.
Hauber, R. P., Cormier, E., & Whyte Iv, J. (2010). An Exploration of the Relationship between Knowledge and Performance-Related Variables in High-Fidelity Simulation: Designing Instruction That Promotes Expertise in Practice. Nursing Education Perspectives, 31(4), 242–246.
Reeves, K. (2008). Using Simulated Education for Real Learning. MEDSURG Nursing, 17(4), 219–220.
Rutherford-Hemming, T. (2012). Simulation Methodology in Nursing Education and Adult Learning Theory. Adult Learning, 23(3),
129–137.
Rutledge, C. M., Barham, P., Wiles, L., Benjamin, R. S., Eaton, P., & Palmer, K. (2008). Integrative simulation: A novel approach to educating culturally competent nurses. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 28(1/2), 119–128.
Secomb, J., Mckenna, L., & Smith, C. (2012). The effectiveness of simulation activities on the cognitive abilities of undergraduate third-year nursing students: a randomized control trial. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(23/24), 3475–3484.
Wilson, R. D., Klein, J. D., & Hagler, D. (2014). Computer-Based or Human Patient Simulation-Based Case Analysis: Which Works Better for Teaching Diagnostic Reasoning Skills? Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(1), 14–18.
Name:
Institution:
Simulation has been found to be effective in teaching and learning in training of nurses. Many scholars have associated simulation with successes in training of competent nurses. However, simulation has also been criticized by some scholars. Several scholarly articles and sources have been used to write the literature review concerning the use of simulation in nursing education.
The Challenge in Nursing Education
The care for patients requires adequate nursing skills and knowledge, an aspect that require the use of active learning in training institutions. Active learning is preferred by many nursing instructors and scholars since it provides …show more content…
students with adequate competence to care for patients. In addition, the nurses are challenged by difficult situations in the clinical areas during delivery of services to clients. The challenges require the nurses to make efficient and accurate clinical judgments in order to manage the patients. The nursing knowledge, skills, and experience is obtained from both clinical and classroom areas. Therefore, it is important for students and instructors to fill the gap that exist between theoretical knowledge and the application in the real patient setting. Nursing education helps to facilitate the development of nursing knowledge, skills, decision-making skills and experience among nursing students (Aebersold & Tschannen, 2013).
However, according to Yuan, Williams, & Fang (2012), a problem has arisen where the students face challenges in finding adequate clinical experience due to several challenges. Also, the instructors have difficulties in providing adequate clinical training for the students, which can limit the competencies of the nursing students in patient management. One of the things that have created difficulties in finding enough time for clinical experience involves the short clinical placements. Most of the training curriculums provide little time for clinical placements. Also, some of the training institutions limit the time for clinical placement in order to lower the cost of training. Another challenge involves the short stay of patients in the hospital, which gives the students little time to interact with the patients. The presence of modern technology in health care has helped to quicken the recovery of patients hence stays in the hospitals for a short time. In addition, Harris, Pittiglio, Newton, & Moore (2014) shows that using the real patient to practice the classroom knowledge can affect the safety of the patient as well as the students. Moreover, the concept of privacy should also be adhered to by nurses hence the instructors may not find a suitable environment to train the students.
The Solution (Simulation)
Therefore, due to these challenges the nurse educators and training institutions have devised some solutions to provide proper training for the students. The solution involves the adoption of simulation as a method of learning and teaching. Simulation resembles the clinical area where the students train on performing nursing procedures. The simulated learning and teaching can occur in skills laboratories or by use of designed computer programs (Rutherford-Hemming, 2012).
Evidence on Effectiveness of Simulation
A systematic study, to review the literature, was done by Yuan et al.
(2012), to identify the effectiveness of simulation in nursing education. The study indicated that the use of simulation when teaching nursing students helps to build competence and confidence in delivery of nursing services to patients. The participants in the reviewed studies involved nurse graduates and nursing students who utilized simulation as a learning method. It also included the nurses who used simulated environment for training on patient care. The review showed that the utilization of simulation as a method of teaching and learning helped to engage the learners actively during training sessions. In addition, the students exhibited abilities to identify and interpret patient issues as well as make appropriate decisions to solve the issues. The simulated learning environment helped them to learn the nursing skills in confidence and safe manner. Furthermore, the study by Reeves (2008) indicated that the students and the nurse graduates were able to develop adequate psychomotor, affective and cognitive skills through a safe environment that resembled a real patient setting. Moreover, according to a study by Fero et al. (2010), the students learn to make decisions on patient care in an independent and autonomous manner. Also, the simulated environment of patient care helped in developing the analytical skills of the nurses hence ability to identify efficient nursing …show more content…
interventions.
Rutherford-Hemming (2012) carried out another study to determine the use of simulation in nursing education. The findings of the study indicate that the use of simulation in nursing education provides a safe learning and teaching environment. In addition, the teacher can demonstrate various nursing skills and procedures to the students comfortably. Also, a study by Wilson, Klein, & Hagler (2014) reveals that simulation helps to utilize the concept of meaningful learning. According to Rutherford-Hemming (2012), the use of simulation helped the learners to learn new nursing knowledge that can be applied in real patient care.
Many institutions that train nurses are adopting effective methods of learning and instruction in order to enable the students to gain adequate knowledge and skills of nursing. The institutions are utilizing methods that allow the students to learn the techniques of applying knowledge from the classroom in the real patient setting. One of these methods that many nursing education institutions have adopted involves simulation. The curriculum developers have identified simulation as an educational strategy that helps to achieve the best outcomes since it incorporates active learning process. The educational centers use human simulation to mimic the real clinical area, which gives the students clinical experience in a safe environment (Hauber, Cormier, & Whyte Iv, 2010). The simulated environment also allows the students to practice the clinical procedures repetitively for proper understanding without harm to patients. Repetitive learning helps the learners to master the skills, which they can efficiently and confidently apply in the management of patients (Rutledge et al., 2008).
Learning and teaching occurs best when the four facets of nursing education are utilized. The best instructional methods involve those that incorporate the four aspects of the learning process. Therefore, simulation is one of the teaching methods that incorporate the four aspects to provide students with adequate knowledge, skills and experience in management of patients. Simulation incorporates the emotional component of learning, which is one of the facets. Also, simulation helps to develop the technical competence through repetitive practice of psychomotor skills. Furthermore, the teachers utilize their nursing expertise to train students with an aim of meeting the educational needs. Moreover, simulation allows the instructors to teach nursing students in learning that is situated in the context of nursing. Therefore, the use of simulation allows the nursing students to obtain adequate competence in management of patients with various health needs (Cant & Cooper, 2010).
A systematic review of the literature done by Aebersold & Tschannen (2013) indicates that the use of simulation is an effective teaching and learning method. The review shows that simulation allows the teachers to teach the expected practice guidelines during provision of nursing services. Also, the learners get to learn the steps of performing some nursing procedure, an aspect that helps to boost the quality of nursing services. According to this review, the use of simulation is more advantageous as compared to other methods of learning and teaching in nursing education.
Criticism of Simulation
Although many scholars have attributed the use of simulation to producing good outcomes in nursing education, some researchers have carried out studies that criticize the use of simulation. A study conducted by Secomb, Mckenna, & Smith (2012) aimed to critique the use of simulation in nursing education. The study to establish the effectiveness of simulation utilized a computer-based program and a skills laboratory as the area of study. The participants in this study involved nursing students who were required to develop and use cognitive skills in implementing nursing interventions. The researcher measured the cognitive skills before and after the experiment on simulation. The findings of the investigation showed that learning in the simulated environments did not increase the development cognitive skills among the participants. Furthermore, the author concluded that simulation is insufficient to improve the development of cognitive skills among nursing students at higher levels of learning. The authors argued that educators should not consider simulation as an effective strategy for teaching and learning unless there is adequate evidence to show its effectiveness.
Analysis of the Literature Review
According to my view, I support simulation as the effective method of learning and teaching in nursing education. I support the use of simulation as a solution to the problem of inadequate clinical time in the training of nursing students. The literature review above agrees with my view. The authors of the articles used in the literature review provide valid information about the effectiveness of simulation. Also, the articles used shows adequate information based on research in the nursing education. The authors of the articles present the information in a logical and academic manner, which makes it easy to understand the use of simulation in nursing education. Although some authors critiques simulation, it remains the method to provide ample time for the nursing students to acquire nursing knowledge, skills, experience and competency.
References
Aebersold, M., & Tschannen, D.
(2013). Simulation in Nursing Practice: The Impact on Patient Care. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18(2), 1–1.
Cant, R. P., & Cooper, S. J. (2010). Simulation-based learning in nurse education: systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(1), 3–15.
Fero, L. J., O’Donnell, J. M., Zullo, T. G., Dabbs, A. D., Kitutu, J., Samosky, J. T., & Hoffman, L. A. (2010). Critical thinking skills in nursing students: comparison of simulation-based performance with metrics. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(10), 2182–2193.
Harris, M. A., Pittiglio, L., Newton, S. E., & Moore, G. (2014). Using Simulation to Improve the Medication Administration Skills of Undergraduate Nursing Students. Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(1), 26–29.
Hauber, R. P., Cormier, E., & Whyte Iv, J. (2010). An Exploration of the Relationship between Knowledge and Performance-Related Variables in High-Fidelity Simulation: Designing Instruction That Promotes Expertise in Practice. Nursing Education Perspectives, 31(4), 242–246.
Reeves, K. (2008). Using Simulated Education for Real Learning. MEDSURG Nursing, 17(4), 219–220.
Rutherford-Hemming, T. (2012). Simulation Methodology in Nursing Education and Adult Learning Theory. Adult Learning, 23(3),
129–137.
Rutledge, C. M., Barham, P., Wiles, L., Benjamin, R. S., Eaton, P., & Palmer, K. (2008). Integrative simulation: A novel approach to educating culturally competent nurses. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 28(1/2), 119–128.
Secomb, J., Mckenna, L., & Smith, C. (2012). The effectiveness of simulation activities on the cognitive abilities of undergraduate third-year nursing students: a randomized control trial. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(23/24), 3475–3484.
Wilson, R. D., Klein, J. D., & Hagler, D. (2014). Computer-Based or Human Patient Simulation-Based Case Analysis: Which Works Better for Teaching Diagnostic Reasoning Skills? Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(1), 14–18.