Pre chat information written by Catherine Hughes

Nursing practice is what we ‘do’ when caring for people because of our knowledge, skills and values.  This practice might involve such actions as educating a person to help them understand their condition; carrying out a therapeutic intervention, such as administering medication; or conveying essential information to the wider health and social care team, to ensure the person’s wellbeing. 

There are two potential places we can learn our nursing practice; one is the ‘real world’, where we might be on placement or employed, the other is in a simulated environment.  The simulated environment is a space designed to replicate the real world, as closely as possible, through the provision of equipment, furniture and key people, such as the patient, relatives or other healthcare professionals. It is suggested that simulation can improve patient safety by facilitating learning of both technical skill e.g. measuring vital signs, urinary catheterisation; and non-technical skills e.g. communication and team working.  Not only do we learn in the real and simulated environment but also to have our knowledge and skills assessed, which will provide feed forward, to guide our future development.

There is a growing body of evidence to support the use of Simulation Based Education in healthcare, and the use of simulation is increasing in the curricula of Nursing (Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare, 2014) and this is endorsed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2010) and Health Education England (2016).

During this tweet chat we look forward to hearing your views and sharing experiences on learning and assessment in a simulated environment.

For pre-reading you might like to read the following report that which gives the state of play in the UK and some back ground information about Simulation Based Education.

Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (2014) The National Simulation Development Project: Summary Report [online]. Available at: http://aspih.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/national-scoping-project-summary-report.pdf

Q1) ‘Being watched’ is often given as the most difficult thing about taking part in simulation – have you found a way to get over this and help you make the most of what simulation can offer?

Q2) On the theme of ‘being watched’ – how do you think it benefits you and your peers to observe each other during simulation?

Q3) During simulation a peer may ‘role playing’ your patient/client or vis-a-versa.  How do you think you and your peers could help assist each other’s learning?          

Q4 )Have you had the opportunity to learn via simulation with other health or social care professionals?  How do you think this benefited yours and their learning?

Q5) Is there any part of nursing practice (knowledge, skill or value) you think could not be learnt in simulation?

Q6) The amount of simulation offered is restricted by available resources.  Is there any element of nursing practice do you think is the most import to learn via simulation before we ‘practice’ on real patients/clients?

Q7) Simulation is a method of ‘controlling the variables’ that might be present in the real world to enable a specific subject to be learnt and assessed.  Do you think this is an effective way of assessing our nursing practice? 

Q8) Simulation is all about learning to care for people (patients, relatives and colleagues).  How has your experience of simulation impacted on your nursing practice?