Using Simulation in an Advanced Health Assessment Course

Bloom, Kathaleen C.

Monday, 18 November 2013

Kathaleen C. Bloom, PhD, CNM
Michele S. Bednarzyk, DNP, FNP, BC
School of Nursing, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL

Learning Objective 1: identify advantages of simulation techniques appropriate for health assessment.

Learning Objective 2: compare and contrast live model and digital patient simulations.

Simulation in nursing is not, in and of itself, a new concept, and incorporates a variety of teaching-learning techniques. Simulation techniques offer students the chance to develop and perfect clinical skills in a setting in which errors can occur without causing harm to a person. It also offers educators the opportunity to teach and evaluate these skills in a controlled environment. The breadth of use of simulation in all levels of nursing education continues to escalate as information and resources become more and more available and, somewhat, affordable.

We have been using simulations in a graduate level advanced health assessment course since its inception, but the sophistication of those simulated experiences has evolved a great deal over that time. From simple peer-to-peer role-playing of patient encounters for gathering a health history and the use of purely mechanical heart and lung sound simulators and palpation aids, we have progressed through various stages of live model simulations, and have recently incorporated of the use of a digital patient.

The digital patient encounters have implications for possible future use of telemedicine services as these technologies expand over the coming years. This presentation will provide a discussion of this evolution as well as the results of faculty and student evaluations of the various simulation aids/techniques, with a focus on the live model and digital patient simulations.

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