Paper
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Pediatric Nurse Residency Program Integrating Human Patient Simulation
Bridget O. Mudge, RN, MS, Pediatrics and PICU - Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA and Suzanne C. Beyea, RN, PhD, FAAN, Office of Professional Nursing, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA.
Purpose: In 2004, our organization launched a nurse residency program that incorporates human patient simulation. To meet the needs of the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, a program was developed for pediatric/adolescent and pediatric intensive care nurses. This 15-week program was designed to ensure that nurses within this clinical specialty had an educational and clinical experience that best addressed the needs of the learners and ultimately the pediatric population. Methods: A team of clinical and administrative leadership collaborated to develop a program that provided didactic learning experiences coupled with scenario-based learning experiences. The group identified the special needs of the pediatric population in an academic medical center and developed the curriculum based on an eclectic model of family-centered care with a systems-based review. Simulation experiences included high-risk, low frequency events as well as the high-frequency, low risk events that occur in these specialty areas. Concurrently, learners participated in a web-based, online pediatric intensive care course. Results: The cohort of nurses that participated in these programs reported high levels of satisfaction with their learning. Overall orientation time decreased and inexperienced nurses reported an increasing comfort with clinical experiences as they encountered similar scenarios in the simulation laboratory. Nurses demonstrated increased proficiency and accuracy with technical skills, learned to utilize a variety of resources, and developed skills as members and leaders of teams. Furthermore, the simulations became a place to learn about safety and how errors can and do occur. Conclusions and Implications: Human patient simulation supports organizational initiatives related to patient safety and addresses the unique needs of the pediatric population. The utilization of infant, child, and adult simulators promotes learning across the lifespan and addresses age-specific considerations. Simulation also provides rich opportunities for simulated interpersonal interactions with family members and the healthcare team.