Nursing practice requires measures that promote patient safety. Gregory, Guse, Dick, and Russell (2007) stated that in today’s healthcare environment, patient safety serves as a crucial factor in determining quality of patient care through decreasing patient care errors. The integration of high-fidelity simulation (HFS) in the undergraduate nursing curriculum had required evidence that supported the acquisition of learning outcomes which includes KSAs towards patient safety (Howard, Ross, Mitchell, & Nelson, 2010). Therefore, a need of validating scenario-based HFS as a learning pedagogy towards patient safety was needed (Robertson, 2011).
Purpose:
The purpose of this quasi-experimental non-equivalent control pretest-posttest study was to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in the posttest scores of knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards patient safety among the beginning nursing students in a private accelerated baccalaureate nursing program in the Western United States.
Methods:
The study used a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control posttest design using beginning nursing students as samples through convenience sampling method with a the total sample of 156 subjects that were randomly assigned to both control and treatment groups.
Results:
The data analyzed were scores from the H-PEPSS survey posttest (Ginsburg, Castel, Tregunno, & Norton, P. G., 2012) questions corresponding to six patient safety categories. Descriptive statistics and independent t-test for analysis of mean difference was used. In all three categories, statistically significant difference was found legitimizing the efficacy of scenario-based HFPS as a teaching pedagogy (Gates et al, 2011). It is recommended that a broader study that utilizes faculty observed performance towards acquisition of KSAs of patient safety be used rather than students’ perspective (Blum & Parcells, 2010). Conduct a longitudinal study in determining knowledge and skills retention and transferability in both the simulation and clinical settings as well as using a broader demographic of nursing student population.
Conclusion:
It is recommended by this study to conduct a broader study that may include the use of faculty observed performance that focuses more on student’s acquisition of KSAs towards patient safety rather than sole students’ perspective (Blum & Parcells, 2010). Conduct a longitudinal study determining knowledge and skills retention and transferability combining faculty and student evaluations relevant to patient safety in both the simulation and clinical settings as well as using a broader demographic of nursing student population, including students from traditional baccalaureate and associate degree nursing programs. The results of this study add to the existing literature in providing evidence that scenario-based HFS is an effective teaching methodology towards acquisition of KSAs of patient safety, understanding of its important in the undergraduate nursing curriculum in meeting certain learning objectives and justify its use as an alternative teaching methodology for clinical experience.