The value of simulation-based education in developing preparedness for acute care situations: An interview study of new graduate nurses? perspectives

Aim: This study aimed to explore how new graduated nurses experience a one-day simulation based education, contributing to providing care in acute situations two months after completion. Background: Simulation-based education is often offered to new graduated nurses as part of important workplace learning. Simulation-based education is a valid learning and teaching strategy and is suggested as a measure to improve nurses' ability in acute situations. However, studies are often conducted as pre-post evaluations immediately after completion of a simulation. Thus, knowledge of the clinical impact of simulation-based ed-ucation on actual acute care situations could benefit both research and practice. Design/method: During the winter of 2021-2022, 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with newly graduated nurses two months after they completed the simulation-based education and the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: The results are presented in three themes: a structured and shared strategy to handle acute situations, a developed role in acute situations and a more comprehensive understanding of acute situations. The results revealed that simulation-based education can contribute to the ability to care in acute situations in terms of action readiness and broad contextual understanding.Conclusion: Simulation-based education can help develop the ability to care for patients in acute situations. However, differences in participant experiences must be acknowledged and processed in order for the imple-mentation and outcome to be successful.

Automated summary

The study aimed to examine the experience of new graduated nurses in a one-day simulation-based education and how it contributes to their ability to provide care in acute situations two months later. Simulation-based education was found to enhance nurses' action readiness and broad contextual understanding in acute situations.