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Learning Objective 1: examine the use of simulation in the assessment and evaluation of clinical care situations.
Learning Objective 2: incorporate simulation into the curriculum has resulted in nurse educators attempting to adopt new teaching strategies that enhance the student’s learning experience through clinical simulation.
The ongoing call for nursing education to incorporate simulation into the curriculum has resulted in nurse educators attempting to adopt new teaching strategies that enhance the student’s learning experience through low, medium and high-fidelity technology. The majority of published articles on simulation in nursing education emphasize the teaching-learning experiences of faculty and students. Even leaders in the field of simulated learning encourage educators to use simulation to enhance student learning and caution educators to avoid the use of simulation as an evaluation of student learning. This perspective limits the full potential of using simulation in nursing curricula.
The use of simulation in the assessment and evaluation of student learning is essential to expanding the acceptance of simulated patient care experiences. The purpose of this presentation is to expand the use of simulation in the assessment and evaluation of undergraduate nursing students and to measure programmatic level outcomes. The capstone course has incorporated simulation of Heart Failure and Closed Head Injury to identify academic-practice gaps students exhibit at the end of the program. Examples of program outcome gaps consisted of:
- Lack of consistent hand hygiene
- Seizure care
- Glasgow coma scale
- Oxygenation ranges required for various devices
- Administration time for furosemide IVP
- Incomplete assessments; obtaining partial information prior to contacting MD
Even though significant faculty time and attention is devoted to arranging and facilitating simulation scenarios, the real work begins once the students leave. The essential element in simulation is to close the academic-practice gaps and improve healthcare delivery. This is the crucial dimension that simulation can play in program evaluation. If the information gained by nurse educators during the simulated learning experiences is not directly incorporated into program evaluation the gaps identified will never be filled to improve nursing education and healthcare delivery.