Transitioning from pre-licensure student into the role of the practicing nurse can be an overwhelming experience to a newly licensed registered nurse. It is anticipated the novice nurse will be prepared to enter the clinical practice setting ready to work within the scope of practice of a licensed registered nurse (American Nurses Association, 2015). In the healthcare industry, nurse internship programs are recognized as a standard process to acclimate the novice nurse to the practice setting. Yet, teaching-learning methodologies are constantly evolving to inform entry into practice success (Pfaff et al., 2014; Rush et al., 2013). It is crucial to identity teaching-learning methodologies which can positively and directly impact the transition of a newly licensed registered nurse into clinical practice. Human patient simulator mannequins have evolved to address both the educational needs and practice initiatives of pre-licensure nursing students (Kardong-Edgren et al., 2012; Katz et al., 2010). As an experiential teaching-learning strategy, human patient simulation has the capacity to promote this necessary transition. Yet, outcome measures connecting transition to practice in a formal nurse internship program with human patient simulation are still lacking in the literature (Ying et al., 2014; Zigmont et al., 2015). The purpose of this project was to explore graduate nurse interns’ perceptions of the addition of simulation-based education into a nurse internship program to promote transition into the clinical practice setting.
Methods:
Simulation-based education was incorporated into an existing graduate nurse internship program at a university medical center in Northern, Texas. A Hermeneutic phenomenology research design was used to address the research questions. A non-probability, purposive convenience sample of graduate nurse interns’ hired into either the medical-surgical, telemetry, or critical care essentials internship during the summer of 2016 participated in the research study. Study procedures commenced after Institutional Review Board approval. Participants attended five simulation-based education sessions coinciding with the didactic theory portion of the internship for each practice unit. The simulation-based education sessions were facilitated by a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator and were designed to follow the recognized International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning Standards of Best Practice: Simulation guidelines (INACSL, 2013; 2015). The setting was a simulation education room located on the study site. A total of 25 participants completed all study processes.
Results:
Qualitative data was collected during individual participant face-to-face interviews. Qualitative data was explored using the procedural steps outlined by Streubert and Carpenter (2011) as naïve reading, structural analysis, and interpretation of the whole aligning with hermeneutic phenomenology. Rigor was maintained by following the guidelines of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability. Data saturation was achieved with the participant sample size. The two overarching themes of Gaining Comfort with Relationships and Talking it Out emerged from the qualitative analysis.
Conclusion:
The incorporation of a simulation-based education program into the existing graduate nurse internship has the potential to enhance the successful transition of the graduate nurse intern into the practice setting. Outcomes such as improvement of self-confidence in practice, successful role socialization, and effective communication are essential and universal acquisitions for newly licensed nurses to achieve. Research findings support the advancement of simulation science within the healthcare industry. In addition, findings demonstrate the need to conduct research not only focused on transition into practice, but also to determine the optimal capacity to integrate simulation-based education into the curricula of existing nurse training and internship programs.
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