Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Table 1
Yes No N/A
Organisation and Management 83.6% 6.0% 10.4%
Clinical Practice 86.6% 3.0% 10.4%
Communication 89.7% 2.9% 7.4%
Ethical/professional/legal issues 77.9% 7.4% 14.7%
Not applicable was given as optional answer for these four questions
as some students may not have experienced all of the scenarios in
the simulation depending on the roles they were allocated.
Overall students’ ratings of their own level of knowledge increased
after the exercise. In some instances they were lower which would
indicate that the exercise identified gaps in their knowledge that
they were not aware of.
The answers to the open ended questions included comments as to
how beneficial the exercise was and how they felt it prepared them
for their roles as staff nurses. Comments in relation to facilitating
the transition from student nurse to staff nurse could be grouped
into the following headings
- relating/integrating theory and practice
- development of caseload management skills
- development of professional practice
- confidence building
- identification of weak areas for further study/practice
- dealing with difficult situations
Students’ comments during the debriefing and feedback session
supported these findings.
There were a number of limitations to this study.
� Students were asked not to tell their classmates about the
exercise however we noticed that for certain areas where
earlier groups had made errors or overlooked specific care
later groups were more alert to these issues. While this in
itself contributed to their learning we could not quantify to
what degree.
� The questionnaire measures students’ perceptions of their
own level of knowledge before and after the exercise. We did
not measure whether or not learning had actually taken place.
� In general the students who acted as patients viewed the
exercise more positively and had higher increases in their
perceived level of knowledge than the students who acted as
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