It’s Alive – Multiple Simulated Nursing Encounters Activity
I have created an example that outlines student expectations for simulated patient encounter utilizing video conferencing. The situation involves a client who is seeking possible mental health assistance in a rural community living 500 km away. Students will be completing a mental health assessment well developing a therapeutic relationship and overcoming all barriers that occur using virtual communication when they typically expect to conduct these interactions in person. This is becoming more common place in a post pandemic environment. The challenge this approach helps overcome is the archaic structure that simulated learning occurs in a large lab based setting where curtains and open rooms create a lot of noise and ambiance that is often encountered in clinical settings. The utilization of virtual communication would create a challenge of students all attempting to engage with simulated clients in one room that would drastically increase the noise and amount of people attempting to talk over each other while assessing clients in one room. The one solution as having a group assessment with one simulated patient that a large group would assess together, however, this reduces the amount of time and opportunity for each individual to practice therapeutic relationship development tools and reduces the amount fo exposure that students require to increase comfort prior to real clinical settings. There is also the isolation that will occur with students who are not as outgoing, have distractions in their own background, or are not comfortable in larger groups who would not typically be engaging in activities like this. By optimizing the capability of platforms like Zoom that allow numerous breakout rooms, several simulated patients can be evaluated by students in pairs or individually, enabling an instructor to be present during the interaction and provide the necessary support and tools if students find the activity challenging. The most significant benefit is that these scenarios may be triggering to students, especially with research identifying the prevalence of mental health and mental health related events that occur in society. During a triggering episode, the platform will allow an instructor to be present, stop the simulation and provide immediate support to a student, similar to engaging with them in person, rather than having someone hide within a group and have students leaving the course with the thoughts or emotions created from a possible trigger without it being addressed and overcome in a safe and healthy setting.
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