Increasing Nursing Students' Simulated Resuscitation Performance: A Standardized Simulation-Based Acute and Intensive Care Nursing Curriculum

Monday, 30 October 2017: 9:30 AM

Jie Chen, MNS
Department of Nursing, Wuhan University School of Health Sciences/ University of Connecticut School of Nursing, Wuhan, China

Background: Simulation-based curriculum has been demonstrated as crucial to nursing education in the development of students’ critical thinking and complex clinical skills during a resuscitation simulation. Few studies have comprehensively examined the effectiveness of a standardized simulation-based acute and intensive care nursing curriculum on the performance of students in a resuscitation simulation.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of a standardized simulation-based acute and intensive care nursing curriculum on nursing students’ performance in a resuscitation simulation.
Design: Two-group, non-randomized quasi-experimental design.
Setting: A simulation center in a Chinese University School of Nursing.
Participants: Third-year nursing students (N=39) in selecting the Acute and Intensive Care course were divided into a control group (CG, n = 20) and an experimental group (EG, n = 19).
Methods: The EG participated in a standardized high-technology, simulation-based acute and intensive care nursing curriculum. The standardized simulation-based curriculum for third-year nursing students consists of three modules: disaster response, emergency care, and critical care, which include clinical priorities (e.g. triage), basic resuscitation skills, airway/breathing management, circulation management and team work with eighteen lecture hours, six skill-practice hours and twelve simulation hours. The CG took part in the traditional curriculum. This curriculum included two modules: emergency care and critical care with thirty-four lecture hours and two skill-practice hours (trauma).
Results: Perceived benefits included decreased median (interquartile ranges, IQR) seconds to start compressions [CG 32 (25-75) vs. EG 20 (18-38); p<0.001] and defibrillation [CG 204 (174-240) vs. EG 167 (162-174); p<0.001] at the end of the course, compared with compressions [CG 41 (32-49) vs. EG 42 (33-46); p>0.05] and defibrillation [CG 222 (194-254) vs. EG 221 (214-248); p>0.05] at the beginning of the course. Students in the EG felt that the teaching quality and outcomes of the domains were met more effectively than participants in the CG. 
Conclusion: A simulation-based acute and intensive care nursing curriculum was created and well received by third-year nursing students and associated with improved performance in a resuscitation simulation.