The lived experiences of intensive care nursing students exposed to a new model of high-fidelity simulation training: a phenomenological study

Critical care nurses are required to possess a combination of skills, knowledge, and attitudes useful to improve nursing care of critically ill patients [1]. To obtain advanced technical skills and complex non-technical abilities (e.g., communicate with patients and co-workers, teamwork ability, face end-of-life care and moral issues) required to perform their role, critical care nurses can aspire to attend several academic postgraduate courses worldwide [2, 3]. In these courses, clinical training is traditionally performed at the bedside, on ambulances or in first-responder services and it is generally integrated through different typologies of technology-based educational strategies, that prepares students to face a dynamic healthcare domain characterized by high hazard and invasive interventions [4]. High-fidelity simulation (HFS) is a teaching and learning method based on real clinical scenarios performed in a realistic, safe, and forgiving environment through a technologically advanced human patient simulator (mannequin) able to reproduce life-like clinical conditions, which enables students to acquire technical and non-technical skills [5‐7]. The fidelity concept is related to the perception of realism by students and it is positively associated to their engagement into learning activity [8]. Fidelity encompasses the following dimensions: 1) physical, which consists in how the setting closely replicates the clinical environment; 2) conceptual, which consists in ensuring that clinical scenarios make sense and guarantee the consistency between learning goals and students’ needs; 3) psychological, which is related to the contextual elements that can be found in the clinical setting, such as social relationships, distractions, or competing priorities [8, 9]. In accordance with the international standards of best practice in simulation, HFS sessions offered within courses are based on a systematic and cyclical planning which provides prebriefing, simulation-based experience, and debriefing [8]. The linear application of this approach appears to be the most utilized worldwide for its educational effectiveness in improving learning outcomes, especially in undergraduate nursing students [10‐12]. However, it is known that the different methods of HFS can affect the magnitude of the learning outcomes and the literature does not clarify the optimal duration of HFS sessions, the ideal number of expositions and participants, the most effective facilitation methods, and whether the traditional HFS method can serve as empirical reference in postgraduate students’ education [6, 12, 13]. Hypothetically, these students have both a higher level of competence and clinical experience than undergraduates and they likely need a different approach in simulation design to obtain higher level learning outcomes than those documented in the literature [6, 14, 15]. Therefore, research efforts to test new HFS modalities that aid the clinical learning process, especially in postgraduate students, are needed. At the University of L’Aquila, located in the centre of Italy, a postgraduate critical care program which incorporates innovative HFS modalities was implemented and evaluated (Table 1).

During the postgraduate critical care program, students are expected to attend several HFS sessions in a laboratory outfitted with a technologically advanced human patient simulator, as well as all medical equipment and devices typically utilized within an Intensive Care Unit to simulate the nursing management of high risk, low incidence life-threatening clinical conditions. In the simulation laboratory is guaranteed a high level of environmental fidelity, while the availability of dedicated expert faculty ensure attention to conceptual and psychological aspects in each simulation session.

Beginning with the 2018–2019 academic year, graduate nursing students enrolled in the postgraduate critical care program received multiple exposures to an innovative HFS design based on the Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory [16].

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, which describes the cyclical process of learning, was used to structure different phases within the simulation sessions (Fig. 1).

After attending lectures about respiratory diseases and the related clinical management, students took part in their first four-hour HFS experience based on an acute respiratory failure scenario. The ‘concrete experience’ consisted of both prebriefing and simulation in which students were engaged with an acute respiratory failure scenario. The first phase was followed by a video-assisted debriefing in which students reflected on and reviewed their learning experience under the guidance of their teacher (reflective observation). The moment of the supervised skills reinforcement allowed time for the ‘abstract conceptualization’ in which students tried to draw conclusions of the experience by reflecting on their prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes and had the chance to see how what they learned can be applied onto the real world. Finally, students applied what they learned being involved in active experimentation within the second simulation session.

The same four-hour HFS experience was repeated one month apart with worsened and more critical clinical conditions of the simulated patient. Both for the first and the second simulation experience, students were divided into groups of three, with the group composition changing in the second experience based on students’ availability. During the final debriefing for the HFS experiences, faculty gave students the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of safety and quality of care by focusing student’s knowledge on best practices under the guidance of faculty and clinical experts.

The novel learning model based on multiple exposure to the HFS aimed at improving the learning experience of postgraduate students enrolled in a postgraduate critical care course. To know the full experience and perspectives of participants is the first step to fill current literature gaps about the best HFS application modality in postgraduate courses. In addition, the students’ point of view allows faculty to make improvements in the training experience and to ensure consistency with participants’ training needs. For this reason, according to the first level (reaction) of Kirkpatrick’s Learning Evaluation Model [17], this study aimed at investigating the lived experiences of postgraduate students receiving multiple exposures to an innovative HFS design.

Overall, 15 postgraduate students were enrolled. Nine (60.0%) were female and six (40.0%) were male and the mean age was 26.9 ± 3.9 years.

During the 2018–2019 academic year, 15 students were enrolled in the study. Reflecting the national gender distribution of Italian nurses, most of them were female [21]. While, their mean age (26.9 years), was slightly higher than current graduates (24.6 years) in Italy [22].

To the researchers’ knowledge, this study is the first to report the lived experiences of postgraduate students participating to a novel learning experience based on multiple exposures to HFS. Knowing students’ reactions about the proposed teaching strategy helps faculty improve the quality of the learning process, review any phases considered problematic, and guarantee their efficacy. The thematic analysis highlighted that the learning experience played an important role in promoting a positive attitude in students about the novel teaching strategy. In this regard, multiple immersive experiences allowed students to apply the theoretical concepts in a safe and forgiving learning environment activating their perceptions, knowledge, and behaviours while the critical skills reinforcement, inspired by the principles of ‘learning for mastery’, improved their confidence [23‐26]. The results concerning student’s appreciation for this learning activity are similar to those displayed in other educational settings in which simulation was considered an adequate preparation for caring for real patients in a suitable atmosphere [27‐30]. This approach led to meeting students’ learning needs and times and allowed them to incorporate new operative models as well as technical and non-technical skills in the following HFS sessions [26, 31].

Multiple exposure to HFS, positive attitude, and confidence of students contributed to the transition from negative to positive feelings about the learning environment in which they had to simulate caring for a critically ill patient [25, 26, 32]. In fact, initially, students displayed a series of negative emotions such as anxiety, embarrassment, and scepticism toward the educational method, likely due to their clinical experience that could have affected how they perceived the realism of simulation sessions, or to the initial cognitive load related to an unfamiliar learning experience [25, 33]. Conversely, despite the initial doubts towards the proposed activities, all the students left the simulation experience with feelings of satisfaction, a sense of being enriched by the activity, and expressed appreciation towards the faculty tutors who made it possible to learn and practice with realistic clinical situations in which they were initially apprehensive to face in daily practice [34‐36]. The novel experience was conducted in a safe and supportive learning environment in which students could feel free to make errors, talk about what they did not understand, repeat nursing techniques, and deepen their knowledge in the debriefing under the guidance of a facilitator. All these conditions could promote a sense of well-being in the students [34, 36, 37]. In this regard, the positive effect of fidelity and realism of scenarios on students’ learning experience has been confirmed [30]. Comfort and safety in the clinical management of critically ill patients were two other common feelings expressed by participants. They expressed their comfort in feeling trained, prepared and now ready to face critical clinical situations outside the simulated learning environment [38].

Reaching an adequate confidence level about technical and non-technical nursing skills is fundamental to promoting efficient nurse-to-patient relationships and good teamwork which are fundamental to guaranteeing patient safety in critical care areas [39]. In this regard, students commonly shared being more prepared to face critical situations in which they had to act, respond, and deliver several procedures to patients. Although groups involved in each HFS session were composed of students who had never worked together in stressful situations, the didactic approach based on the repetition of the learning experience seemed to overcome the difficulties of traditional simulation activities in which groups are briefly formed and then dissolved [40, 41]. Therefore, having taken part into the simulations as a team, students were made aware of the value of all members of the contributing clinical practice team [42]. The teamwork contribution for students is explored in another work, in which is documented that student took advantage from each other competencies, to solve the scenario, improving their teamwork abilities [43].

In accordance with the logic of the new educational model, students welcomed the increased number of simulation sessions. They thought this would improve their learning experience through the dilution of theoretical concepts over time, giving more opportunities for individual training, and assuring the effective achievement of all required nursing skills including critical thinking and clinical reasoning. The basic principle which allowed the achievement of these results was the scaffolding process by which faculty created learning opportunities with increasing complexity, providing an educational framework for learning by which students attempted to reach new knowledge and skills through their own initiative, motivation, and resourcefulness [44, 45]. In this framework, training based on multiple exposures to HFS focalized on specific educational needs of postgraduate students may represent an effective method to guarantee the acquisition of advanced technical and non-technical nursing skills.

Finally, according to previous research experiences that involved postgraduate nursing students, participants were highly satisfied by the simulation experience [14, 46].

The novel approach applied in this study has been lived as a pragmatic learning experience by postgraduate students enhancing their ability to apply theory to practice and develop a positive attitude towards HFS. Multiple exposure to HFS contributed to the transition from negative to positive feelings about the learning environment in which they had to simulate caring for a critically ill patient. At the end of all the simulation experiences students perceived an improvement in their confidence about technical and non-technical skills when caring for a critically ill patient.