The Advantages of Including Clinical Simulation in Nursing Education Research Paper

The Advantages of Including Clinical Simulation in Nursing Education - Research Paper Example This way, the individual is fully engaged in something that he might otherwise just read about or watch someone else doing. However, in most situations, people are just asked to â€Å"watch and learn† and be expected to automatically imbibe what is being taught. Somehow, for most people, this is not enough, especially for those in jobs that would require actual practice before they apply what they have learned. Nursing is one example of a career that would need much practical experience before implementation as a career. Since nurses are entrusted with the lives of their patients, having no clue as to what to do with them in actual practice, no matter if they are just new in their profession, is no excuse. It would be a risky and unprofessional thing to do. Lacking practical experience, nursing students cannot just rely on their theoretical knowledge gained from school. New Training Technique One new development in nursing education is the use of clinical simulation. This is a teaching methodology that provides students with learning experiences closely resembling real-life circumstances that they are likely to encounter in their professional practice. â€Å"Simulated clinical experience requires immersing students in a representative patient-care scenario, a setting that mimics the actual environment with sufficient realism to allow learners to suspend disbelief† (Waxsman:29). Faced with a simulated environment, they gain familiarity with situations that they will most probably encounter in their future profession. They get to see the real equipment to be used, the set up in a clinical environment, and get an idea of how it feels like to be in a clinic, hospital room or operating room. In this method, student nurses get the opportunity to use a lifelike high-fidelity manikin which is interactive and realistic (Jeffries: 56). Different scenarios that nurses are likely to encounter with their patients are played out during simulation sessions that would summon their skills and knowledge. The manikin would serve as a sample patient that the nurses can attend to depending on the symptoms presented. High and low-fidelity manikins as well as skill and task trainers, virtual reality trainers, computer-based simulators and scenarios and even standardized patients comprise the simulation education package (Jeffries: 60). In clinical simulation, they get exposed to various scenarios and are supposed to apply what they have learned in a safe and controlled environment that will not risk the safety and life of any patient. This is very much different from the traditional teaching methods that nursing students have been accustomed to such as lectures, discussions, role-play and laboratory practice, as these may no longer be effective (Waxman:30). What is currently being promoted in education is the adherence to constructivist pedagogical approaches wherein more active, experiential learning strategies reflect real world practices. Parke r & Myrick (42) contend that clinical simulation has constructivist pedagogical underpinnings fostering interpretive, generative learning which is suited to the promotion of transformative learning. Through the use of clinically- simulated scenarios, students engage in concrete experiences likely to be done in their future practice. The Process of Clinical Simulation Human patient simulation (HPS) is the technology behind clinical simulation in nursing education. Bearnson and Wiker (422) explain that a human-like manikin designed with human-like responses and function is controlled by a computer by the