The Effects of vSIM for Nursing™ as a Teaching Strategy on Fundamentals of Nursing Education in Undergraduates

doi:10.1016/j.ecns.2017.01.005

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Volume 13, Issue 4, April 2017, Pages 194-197

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2017.01.005 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Use of virtual simulation is increasing in nursing education.
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The vSIM for Nursing serves as a suitable virtual simulation platform for nursing curriculum.
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Application of virtual simulation had a positive effect on nursing students' knowledge acquisition in Fundamentals of Nursing.

Abstract

Virtual simulation offers various benefits and should be considered in future nurse education. This study aimed to report the effectiveness of vSIM for Nursing as a supplemental teaching strategy on performance of undergraduate students in a Fundamentals of Nursing course. This was a randomized, controlled, posttest design. Twenty-eight undergraduates were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. In the experimental group, ten virtual cases were additional to regular course procedure. In the control group, students received regular course procedure only. Knowledge test and skill performances were compared between groups. Thirteen students in the experimental group and 14 students in the control group completed the study. Students in the experimental group had significantly higher knowledge scores than students in the control group. Results in this study indicates that the vSIM for Nursing might be an effective supplementary teaching strategy to improve students' knowledge of Fundamentals of Nursing.

Section snippets

Background

Fundamentals of Nursing, providing content in the basic practical skills, knowledge, communication strategies, and beginning pharmacology, is the first course in which students learn how to perform nursing skills to patients. However, students are novices in their psychomotor skills and may feel not well prepared when facing patients (Stroup, 2014). Additionally, they may have no chance to practice their skills fully in the clinical area due to the decreased clinical placement opportunities (

Sample

In a bachelor program for nursing in a university located at a central city in China, all the second-year students enrolled in Fundamentals of Nursing course were invited to participate in the program. In total, 28 students consented to participate, and informed consent was then obtained. None of the students had previously taken the course or participated in simulation before.

Methods

A randomized control trail with a posttest-only design was implemented. Twenty-eight students were randomly assigned to either experimental group or control group. As a result, there were 14 students in each group. All the students completed regularly scheduled learning activities of the course together. Students in the experimental group received additional virtual simulation training on the vSIM for Nursing platform. Ten virtual cases for Fundamentals of Nursing were used including scenarios

Results

With one participant in the experimental group withdrawn from the study, 27 participants completed the whole procedure. After tests were completed, scores of knowledge and skill performances were evaluated by entering the data into SPSS, version 22.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY). Demographic data showed the mean age was 19.0 (SD = 0.58) years in the experimental group and 19.29 (SD = 0.73) years in the control group. The mean grade point average was 3.21 (SD = 0.15) in the experimental group

Discussion

This study used a novel nursing virtual simulation platform and compared regular learning activities to a combination of regular learning activities and virtual simulation for undergraduate nursing students' achievement of learning outcomes in Fundamentals of Nursing.

Students who received virtual simulation training achieved significant higher scores on the knowledge test. This finding supports the previous findings that virtual simulation may help to develop nursing knowledge (McCallum, Ness,

Conclusion

There are several limitations of this study. First, the vSIM for Nursing platform is developed in English which is a second-language for Chinese students. Second, the small sample size limited the generalization of the result. However, within this experimental framework using randomized and comparable samples, clear significant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group.

In conclusion, this study supported that vSIM for Nursing could improve undergraduate nursing

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Research BriefThe Effects of vSIM for Nursing™ as a Teaching Strategy on Fundamentals of Nursing Education in Undergraduates

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Background

Sample

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Nurse Education Today

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Nurse Education Today

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Clinical Simulation in Nursing

Benefits of computer screen-based simulation in learning cardiac arrest procedures

Medical Education

Research Brief
The Effects of vSIM for Nursing™ as a Teaching Strategy on Fundamentals of Nursing Education in Undergraduates