Sarah Owens Watts, Amy Curtis, Katilya Ware, Tiffani Chidume, and Meghan Jones (School of Nursing)
A Mixed Methods Study to Examine the Impact of Structured, Reflective Pre-briefing Activities on Students’ Performance of Skills and Confidence in Learning During Simulation-Based Experiences
Simulation-based experiences (SBE) can provide a unique approach to prepare students for clinical practice. Educators incorporate this method to ensure students are provided opportunities to practice clinical reasoning and other discipline-specific skills. Research strongly suggests simulation is effective; however, little is known about the impact of pre-briefing on students’ experiences in simulation (Page-Cutrara & Turk, 2017). This proposed mixed methods study will evaluate the impact of pre-briefing activities on nursing students’ satisfaction and self-reported confidence as well as performance of nursing skills during a simulation-based experience. In this study, all elements, pre-briefing, the simulation scenario, and debriefing, will follow the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning: Standards of Best Practice SM (INACSL SOBP) (2016). However, the description of requirements for pre-briefing in the INASCL SOBP could be further developed to be clearer. For this study, the control group will participate in standard pre-briefing activities that adhere to the INACSL SOBP(2016). However, the intervention group will participate in more robust, structured pre-briefing activities. Participants’ nursing skills exhibited during the simulation scenario will be evaluated by trained raters using Student Competency Tool to identify any statistically significant differences among the intervention and control groups. An additional survey will be used to assess participants’ satisfaction and self-reported confidence in learning. Focused group sessions will be conducted post simulation to further understand students’ experiences with pre-briefing activities. Findings could be significant to the profession, as it could support the incorporation of structured, reflective pre-briefing activities in SBE to enhance students’ nursing skills and confidence.
Christopher A. Lepczyk (Forestry and Wildlife Sciences)
The proposed project seeks to assess students learning outcomes from a semester long field based course exercise. Specifically, students spend one hour outside, ideally in a green space, natural area, forest, etc., where they record and write about their experiences with nature and the environment. I have run this exercise for the past five years and at this point have modified it over time some and seen a great deal of positive outcomes. However, I would like to more formally assess student learning to see how the exercise has influenced knowledge and interest. Thus, the goal of this project is to conduct a social survey of students from the most recent class to evaluate their experiences with the project. As a result, former student learning will not be impacted, aside from introspection they have taking the survey, but future students here and elsewhere will be impacted by improving the exercise and publishing the results of this study.
