Simulation in nursing education

Abstract

Part of becoming a working professional always involves applying knowledge and trying out skills in carefully controlled and monitored settings to get feedback on our first attempts at practice. For many years, nurses have practiced taking BP readings on each other, learned to provide certain kinds of physical care on manikins, and rehearsed giving injections with oranges. With advances in technology, learning labs in nursing schools now include standardized patients (actors), various kinds of lifelike models, and full-scale simulators (manikins that manifest symptoms and respond to treatment decisions and other actions). The use of simulation in nursing education has grown to the point where it's now a common element in the preparation for practice. We review what should you know about simulation and how it's shaping the education of nursing students and graduate nurses coming to your units and settings.