Simulation Centre

Simulation Centre

Throughout nursing education, questions have been raised about the best methods to prepare future nurses for practice in a rapidly-evolving healthcare environment (Ironside & McNelis, 2011; Murphy, 2004). In 2011, the Institute of Medicine stressed the need to improve the preparation of new nurses who look after patients in an increasingly complex care environment. Contributing factors such as population ageing, increased cultural diversity, the prevalence of chronic conditions and the increased use of technology require preparing future nurses in a way that goes beyond the mere transfer of knowledge and skills.

Moreover, nursing instructors have been facing the challenge of applying effective teaching methods that prepare future nurses to tackle clinical situations not yet encountered (Benner et al., 2010; Ironside & McNelis, 2011). Due to the requirements of today’s complex healthcare systems, it is imperative that nursing instructors provide learning experiences that promote critical thinking and acting in any clinical situation. The ability to transfer this knowledge to the nursing practice is important in promoting patient safety and care of the highest quality.

The methods that were used in the past to prepare medical and nursing staff are no longer adequate in the 21st century. A more complex care environment requires the integration of experiential and team learning that reflect this complexity. A simulated learning environment (SLE) has been found to promote critical thinking, clinical decision-making, retention of knowledge and skills and enhanced teamwork.

The beneficial effects of simulated learning on health education are important to change the way in which future nurses are prepared.

Simulation is a teaching and learning method used to reproduce real-life situations (INACSL standards of Best practice: SimulationSM, 2016). Simulation has been widely incorporated in the preparation of healthcare professionals to provide learning experiences in clinical situations without posing risks to persons. In this interactive environment, the learners practise critical thinking and clinical logic on a simulated patient. As the learners engage in the assessment of the clinical situation and decision-making, the simulator realistically responds as a patient, allowing students to assess their decisions and actions. In medical/nursing education, simulation has increasingly been used as a student-focused method to facilitate understanding and provide a link between concepts and situations.

Historically, simulation has been used in nursing training with anatomy models, role trainers, computer simulation, virtual reality and manikins (Nehring & Lashley, 2009). As simulation technology advances, SLE usage has multiplied to the extent that many clinical situations of increasing complexity can be realistically simulated. In a recent study, Breimeyer and colleagues (2015) found that out of 432 nurse educators in the US, 99% said that simulation was used as a method of teaching and learning in the nursing programme, while 77.5% said clinical teaching had been replaced by SLE. These figures indicate not only the prevalence of SLE in nursing education, but also the need to understand and prepare nursing educators for the application of this teaching and learning method.

An adult learner is a self-managed person, who brings along their own set of life experiences, and whose readiness for learning is based on their social or professional ability and competence