Equipping nursing students with the skills and knowledge that employers desire can be a challenging proposition. While the use of simulation in nursing is not new, a more recent trend towards a concept-based curriculum has added a new wrinkle to the equation. In this blog post, T. Kim Rodehorst, RN, PhD and Susan Wilhelm, RNC, PhD discuss the use of simulations in a concept-based nursing program. Read on to learn more!

1. Why is the use of simulation in nursing education so important?

Simulation learning has become an integral part of nursing education. The National Council of State Board of Nursing (2014) demonstrated that simulations are as effective as traditional clinical experiences for achieving competencies. The International Nursing Association of Clinical Simulation Learning (2014) announced standards for simulation learning which we have incorporated into our simulations.

2. I think everyone has an idea about what constitutes ‘simulation’. Can you define it more clearly for all of us?

Simulations are defined as activities that imitate a real clinical environment and focus on skill development, decision-making, and increasing critical thinking. These can be accomplished through role play, high or low fidelity simulators, virtual simulations, and interactive videos. There are 5 key components of a simulation model including teacher and student factors, educational practices, simulation design, and outcomes. Educational practices that should be included during simulation development include the following: active learning, prompt feedback, interactivity, collaborative learning, high expectations, allowing diverse learning styles, and time on task (Chickering and Gamson, 1987).

3. What prompted your interest in the use of simulations?

We became more interested in developing more simulations when we adopted a concept based curriculum. We have taught Maternal-Newborn nursing for over 30 years and we were worried about how we would integrate critical content into our patient-centered courses. We were also concerned about integrating other specialty areas including pediatrics, psychiatric and gerontology as well. The curriculum map had designated a few concepts and exemplars for each of these specialty areas, however there were additional exemplars that needed to be incorporated. Simulation learning was the perfect strategy to incorporate specialty exemplars across the curriculum.

4. Can you give us some examples of concepts/exemplars that could be used over several semesters?

Semester 1: Safety/ hospitalized adult post-operative patient; Mobility/ hip fracture elderly patient’ Caregiving/ spouse of Alzheimer’s patient; Nutrition/Obesity; Elimination/BPH ; Development/ prenatal patient, pediatric patients, and geriatric ;Stress/Coping:/ Bipolar patient.

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