Simulation Education Responding to Unexpected Patient’s Conditions: Basic Nursing Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

　The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic prevented undergraduate nursing students in Japan to visit hospitals, compelling them to undertake their clinical training at their universities. Considering these circumstances, we implemented a simulation exercise involving a total two exercises based on situations requiring responses to patient’s unexpected conditions, as part of the Nursing Process Practicum (Basic Nursing Practice: 1 credit). After completion of the course, a questionnaire was distributed to 99 students (response rate: 38.4%) to assess the potential and future challenges of these simulation exercises. The results revealed differing perceptions of the two observed simulations. For the first exercise, the students reported learning about the occurrence of unexpected situations and the importance of reacting promptly in such situations every time. Regarding the second exercise, the students stated that they had learned how to interact with patients. Furthermore, the implementation of these two simulation exercises helped students to achieve part of this program’s goals in achieving the program’s objective of developing their attitudes as nursing professionals. These findings suggest that this novel approach (using simulation exercises) represents an improvement in the quality of clinical training, and helps address a main challenges of simulation education, that is, how to incorporate the reality of clinical practice in nursing education.