Purpose: One of the most important challenges for a nurse educator is to develop efficient and effective methods to teach a diverse population of students decision-making, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. Providing simulations in nursing education is a relatively efficient method of teaching content and the skills of decision-making and problem-solving. Gaining an understanding of the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating simulations in nursing can be facilitated by a theoretical framework that specifies the variables and their relationships. Furthermore, an empirically supported framework and valid and reliable measures of the variables will help guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of simulations in nursing education and of simulation research. Methodology: An exploratory study was conducted across 8 sites to test simulation design characteristics and educational practices that are components of the proposed simulation framework. Following a review of the literature that identified a lack of specific instruments appropriate to test variables in the simulation framework, two new instruments were designed and tested: The Educational Practices Scale for Simulation (EPSS) and the Simulation Design Scale (SDS). Results: The SDS and the EPSS were each analyzed using factor analyses with varimax rotation. The simulation design feature found most important in a sample of 380 nursing students was debriefing and the most important educational practice that was feedback. Nursing Implications: Using an empirically supported simulation framework to assist in identifying important and effective design features when developing and implementing simulations for nursing education in schools or clinical agencies is very helpful and assures better outcomes. Furthermore, when designing and implementing simulations of all types, debriefing after the simulation experience is very important to the students’ learning in addition to feedback from the instructor during the simulation experience.
Session #1112 - Toward a Science of Nursing Education: New Pedagogies/New Possibilities
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)