An educator's anthology of virtual simulation applications for nursing curricula: A mapping review

Virtual (screen-based) simulations have been utilized to help progress pre-licensure nursing students’ remote clinical learning during the recent pandemic. This mapping review, reports an anthology of virtual simulation technology sources from simulation education web sites and library sources. Two authors verified available sources and categorized these based on cost; either open access, or subscription-based. A list of 40 virtual simulation sources including virtual simulations, virtual reality simulations and virtual games, is presented. These provide faculty with a choice of virtual simulation modalities for various levels of nurse learners. Numerous virtual simulation technology applications are available for educators to utilize in teaching nursing students. Results from this review meet a need for educators to access virtual simulation applications to include in their education curricula

Learning in a virtual world: The emergence of screen based clinical simulation

This paper considers the changing face of clinical education and the emergence of screen-based virtual simulation (VS

Nursing students' evaluation of clinical practice placements using the clinical learning environment, supervision and nurse teacher scale: A systematic review

Objectives To review undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of the quality of their clinical placement experiences by means of surveys conducted using the Clinical Learning Environment Supervision and Nurse Teacher questionnaire. Design Systematic review of English language studies published between 2014 and 2020, in any clinical setting, utilising data collected in the decade 2010 to 2020. Data sources Structured searches were conducted in CinahlPlus, Ovid Medline, Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar. Review methods The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framed the review. Results A total of 111 records were screened, after which 21 studies met criteria for inclusion. Studies were centred on students in Sweden and in 15 other countries. Students’ ratings of ‘Experience’ were positive across five scale subdimensions with means 3.0-3.95 of a possible 5 (overall mean 75.4%). ‘Satisfaction’ across seven studies was rated highly (mean 4.16 of 5) 83.2% agreement. The highest rated subdimension was Supervisory relationship, with the Role of the Nurse Teacher rated lower and inconsistently. The underlying elements are discussed. Conclusion Although students’ Experience and Satisfaction were rated highly averaging over 75%, there is still room for improvement. Further research is needed to examine how students perceive various components of ‘satisfaction’ within clinical learning environments because this can be seen as the primary measure of program quality

Enhancing nursing and midwifery students’ clinical placements: Development of the National Placement Evaluation Centre

The paper raises issues about the quality of nursing and midwifery students clinical placement

Use and effectiveness of virtual simulations in nursing student education

Computer-based virtual simulation in nursing is a rapidly developing field. A summary of current research could benefit nursing faculty who are incorporating this pedagogy into online teaching due to social distancing requirements. This umbrella review aimed to explore the use and effectiveness of virtual simulations in prelicensure nursing education. Our umbrella review approach was informed by The Johanna Briggs Institute guidelines. The 18 included reviews captured the experiences of over 7600 nursing students who engaged with five different virtual (screen-based) simulation modalities. Results indicated that virtual simulations can be effective in developing nursing students' knowledge and psychomotor and psychosocial skills, for example, in medication administration and communication. There was no study that showed a conclusive benefit of virtual simulations for developing clinical reasoning. Students enjoyed virtual simulations, claiming they were accessible, fun, and engaging ways to learn. Many benefits of virtual simulations and some technological challenges were identified in a mapped model. In the future, more rigorous and experimental studies are needed to confirm effects on learning outcomes. Nursing curriculum designers need to define the place and purposes of the pedagogy to ensure that knowledge and skills learned during virtual simulations can be applied to real-world, patient-centered care

A nine‐step pathway to conduct an umbrella review of literature

With the increase in research publications over recent decades, evidence synthesis has become more important in order to collate and succinctly summarize knowledge about specific topics. This offers clinicians, policy-makers, researchers, educators, and interested readers evidence across a wide range of issues. There are more than 14 different types of reviews of literature, each with their own methods.1 Of these, systematic reviews, scoping reviews, integrative, narrative and qualitative methodologies are the most common. As a secondary data source, reviews have become an increasingly popular method for summarizing vast volumes of published evidence in some fields. Disciplinary topics can be the focus of multiple reviews, for example, topics in higher education2 or in medicine.3 With many more primary and secondary evidence sources available, readers are faced with spending vast amounts of time sourcing, collating and making sense of the evidence. The umbrella review methodology overcomes this problem by synthesizing findings from a number of reviews to report on one field of research

Virtual simulation studies in nursing education: A bibliometric analysis of the top 100 cited studies, 2021

Bibliometrics is an emerging science in nursing. Quantitative methods were used to conduct a bibliometric analysis of highly cited virtual simulation nursing education articles to describe rank order, breadth of topics and authorship patterns. A desktop analysis of publication performance was conducted using the Scopus database as the source of article citation data. The top 100 cited articles clustered over 14-years, 2008 to 2021. Citations per paper ranged from 88 to a low of 3 (median 18, mean 22.1) and in the top 10 studies, from 88 to 41. The citation trajectory was moderately correlated with article maturity (r = −0.384, p ≤0.001). Article citations in subsequent publications commenced the first year after publication and three-year-old papers reached the mean citation rate of 22. Nurse Education Today was the most cited journal. There was no significant impact of article type (72% primary research, 17% literature reviews, 11% descriptive papers) (p = 0.755). International representation was strong, as first authors in 21 countries were cited – many (43%) from USA. One highly cited author (M. Verkuyl) from Canada led six papers, with six other authors each leading two studies. Virtual simulation modalities included virtual simulation, virtual reality simulation, 3D virtual reality simulation, virtual games and virtual worlds. The top 10 articles offer a diverse resource for faculty and educators who wish to consider using virtual simulation. Virtual simulation studies in nursing education cover an emerging field of research that has relatively low citation rates. Nursing researchers and faculty need to understand the usefulness and limitations of bibliometric analysis as this methodology can make a unique contribution to research, policy, and funding decisions, and enable productivity assessments of faculty staff and departments. •Bibliometrics is a novel quantitative evaluation method.•Bibliometrics analysis identifies leaders in specific disciplinary fields.•Our results may benefit uptake of virtual simulation in nursing

Transformative learning theory applications in health professional and nursing education: An umbrella review

This review intended to synthesise existing evidence on the application of transformative learning theory in nursing education

What helps, what hinders? Undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions of clinical placements based on a thematic synthesis of literature

Clinical placements are a mandatory component of nursing students’ education internationally. Despite clinical education being a key to nursing students’ achievement of nursing competencies, few studies have reviewed students’ narratives to describe their experiences of learning during clinical placement. Such studies may be important in offering a deeper insight into clinical learning experiences than quantitative surveys

Competency domains for registered nurse preceptor professional development: Evidence from a modified e-Delphi study

Aim: To develop an evidence-based framework of nurse preceptor competency domains and competency descriptors for use in nurse preceptor professional development. Background: Nurse preceptors are registered nurses who coach, support and assess nursing students while simultaneously caring for patients. Working as both clinician and educator requires preceptors to develop additional skills. However, preceptor preparation is often overlooked and may not be evidence based. Design: A modified e-Delphi study. Methods: A three-phase e-Delphi method informed the study that was conducted between March and September 2023. In the first preparatory phase an expert group distilled the results of a previous literature review identifying seven preceptor competency domains and more than 200 competency descriptors. Two e-Delphi rounds followed. A 70% rater agreement response threshold was chosen as appropriate in this study. The CREDES reporting framework was followed. Results: In the preparatory phase, the expert group (n=6) reached consensus on six preceptor domains and 57 preceptor descriptors. In Round 1, nurse preceptors (n= 89) rated the domains and descriptors using a four-point Likert scale; from not important to very important. Six domains and 34 competency descriptors were ranked as very important’. Round 2 participants (n=30) who opted in from Round 1 indicated their 100% agreement with the Round 1 results. The results reveal that preceptors resonate intuitively with the six domains Role model, Facilitator, Leader, Evaluator, Teacher and Coach and the related descriptors. Conclusion: The preceptor evidence-based competency framework offers registered nurse preceptors and their employers the opportunity to focus efforts in developing a nurse preceptor workforce. The framework can be used to design preceptor professional development and offers registered nurses a self-assessment tool to identify their preceptorship skills strengths and areas for development. If implemented in these ways the framework may benefit healthcare organisations to provide quality nurse preceptorship, thus enhancing the clinical learning experiences of nursing preceptees