Creating a Patient-Centered Learning Experience Through Faculty-Student Partnership Approach in Simulation

Purpose: The common roles that nursing faculty play in simulations are facilitating and debriefing sessions (Forrest, McKimm, & Edgar, 2013), developing evidenced-based clinical simulation scenarios (Waxman, 2010), and organizing and leading pre-briefing sessions with utilizing cuing to facilitate learning (White, 2017). A recent study found that the faculty members reported spending at least 10 hours per week beyond their teaching load in the setting-up and breaking-down of simulation environments, writing scenarios, evaluating student performance, and recruiting standardized patients among other roles (Mangine, 2018). Using Simulation in health care creates a safe learning environment to test new clinical processes and to enhance individual and team skills (AHRQ, 2012). In this novice Faculty-Student Partnership Approach (FSPA) the nurse faculty partnered with students in building and implementing the scenario. The purpose of this change-of-shift simulation activity was to use a Faculty-Student Partnership Approach (FSPA) in learning to care for patients with Diabetes and Hypertension and experience the critical role that nurses play in daily change-of-shift reporting.

Methods: N=12 undergraduate nursing students participated in the simulation activity who were enrolled in their first level medical-surgical nursing course. The faculty member assumed an active role, distinct from an observer, facilitator, organizer and evaluator role and partnered with the learners in both developing the scenario as well as implementing the scenario. Post simulation experience, students were asked to voluntarily respond to one-open ended question describing their learning experience using this novel approach. The responses were anonymous.

Results: A total of 11 students submitted their response and their responses were content analyzed using Atlas-ti a qualitative analysis software. The responses were 2 to 3 sentences in length. The results of the content analysis indicated emergence of 3 main categories. The experience promoted patient-centered learning (17 codes), promoted learning on nursing role in change-of-shift reporting (16 codes) and enabled identification of personal learning needs (2 Codes). A word cloud of all the responses clearly demonstrated that Student-Faculty Partnership Approach (FSPA) provided a patient-centered learning experience. Few direct quote examples as evidence are as follows:

“This hands-on experience has opened and engaged my mind into critically thinking about the care that I will deliver to the most important person in healthcare- the patient".

“Change of shift simulation was a really great learning experience for me. I learned that there is a lot to consider when taking care of patient. As we created these patients ourselves, I got to see what are lab values I must consider and what treatments are important to consider. I learned that you have to look at so much when it comes to a patient”.

"“I think that it was a great learning experience. It helped me with tackling patient care in a holistic approach. It also helped with building knowledge on medical diagnoses which shape the nursing care plan for the patient".

Conclusion: This simulation activity revealed that it is very beneficial to the students when the nursing faculty member assumes an active role as partner in simulations. Student-Faculty Partnership Approach (FSPA) promotes a patient-centered learning experience.