Learning Objective #1: Discuss innovative educational material and its effects

Learning Objective #2: Explore more technological challenge for skill development

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Background: The more complex Japanese medical practice becomes, the higher abilities are required for nurses. For providing higher quality of nursing care, improving assessment abilities of nurses is required. In Japan, physical assessment skills have been regarded as essential skills recently, so effective educational programs must be established.

Objective: To develop training programs for physical assessments focusing on respiratory and cardiovascular systems using simulators of lung sounds and heart sounds, and to examine the effect of newly-developed simulators for auscultation.

Sample: Nurses who participated in training programs of physical assessment.

Measurement: Before and just after the training session, the tests were carried out to examine whether proper skills for lung and heart auscultation were acquired or not.

Results: In assessment of lung sounds, nurses became distinguishing much appropriately among 'no sounds', 'coarse crackles', 'fine crackles', 'wheezes' and 'rhonchi' after the training session. The mean value of individual scores that was 13 points before the training session improved to 65 points just after the training session. In assessment of heart sounds, the test scores obtained after the training session weren't different from those obtained before the training session. The mean value of individual scores was 18 points before the training, while it was 15 points just after the training.

Conclusion: Using a newly-developed simulator, nurses could get acquired better lung auscultation skills. The effectiveness of a newly-developed simulator for improving assessment ability to auscultate lung sounds was demonstrated.