Reference no: EM132385281

Assignment: Simulated Learning Experiences

"We really have to improve the teaching and upgrade the sciences in basic nurse education. We have a problem-classroom and clinical instruction are drifting too far apart. We need to integrate classroom and clinical learning much better. Clinical coaching in practice settings and simulations should correspond to knowledge gained in the classroom. The emphasis on simulation is going to be very useful in developing clinical imagination so that students can be more flexible and astute in their use of knowledge in practice."
-Patricia Benner, renowned nurse educator and author

Clinical imagination asks students to step outside of the [sometimes] ‘narrow box' of academia to develop multiple solutions to a situation. In the above quote, Patricia Benner notes how simulations can transition students from knowledge acquisition to knowledge use. However, in order for nurse educators to transform simulations into a teaching technique, they must make every effort to ensure the simulation technology is invisible. To do this, nurse educators should prepare students for the simulation by reiterating that that the goal is not how the simulation works, but rather the how the clinical process works. In addition, highlighting the clinical expertise, critical thinking, collaboration, and technical prowess needed during simulated clinical experiences (SCE) is the true key to bridging the gap between classroom and clinical instruction. Allowing focus to shift too much towards the simulation itself might cause learners to lose sight of the actual objectives of the lesson- thus failing to prepare them for the real demands and consequences of the health care environment.

To prepare

• Review this week's Learning Resources on simulated clinical experiences (SCE). Specifically, examine how each category of SCE (games, simulations, and simulation games) is tailored towards achieving a certain level of Bloom's Taxonomy or domain of learning.

• Reflect on your past learning experiences in both academic and clinical settings that did not include a simulation. For example, a specific class, lesson, group project, doctor's visit, or staff training might come to mind.

• Select one past learning experience to use for this Discussion. Then, identify the learning objectives that your Instructor or health care professional might have had in mind. In addition, identify the type of learning environment in which the lesson was conducted (on-site, online, hybrid).

• Consider how a specific SCE such as interactive games, virtual reality, task trainers (low-fidelity mannequins), human patient simulators (high-fidelity mannequins), etc. might have enhanced your learning during this experience.

• Conduct further research to learn more about a specific SCE technology that might achieve the same learning objectives of your selected learning experience.