Topic Proposal

I have to write an educational issues paper for one of my classes this semester at WSU. Here’s my topic proposal:

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) study, a national, multi-site, longitudinal study of simulation, found that substituting simulation for up to 50% of  students’ traditional clinical experience in pre-licensure nursing programs was as effective as traditional clinical learning and did not affect National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) pass rates or clinical practice (Hayden, Smiley, Alexander, Kardong-Edgren, & Jeffries, 2014). These findings lead to the NCSBN recommendations for simulation programs, supported by The INACSL Standards of Best Practice: Simulation and the NLN Vision Statement on Simulation in Nursing Education (Ackermann et al., 2013; Alexander et al., 2014; NLN Board of Governors, 2015). These publications are being used by state boards of nursing and other governing bodies as a framework for simulation programs at schools of nursing. As a result simulation is growing to be a complex, potentially regulated method of teaching that will influence nursing students programs across the nation. My proposed topic will be a review of criteria and standards that nursing programs can use to develop robust, evidence based simulation programs that will be compliant with potential regulations and requirements of state boards and accrediting bodies.

In thinking about this topic and my approach to the issue, I think that one thing that really drives the “issue” part of it is the ability for schools of nursing to meet the various criteria that state and national agencies are setting forth. Robust, effective simulation requires extensive preparation, training of personnel, technological support, equipment resources and solid theory based teaching-learning understanding that many community colleges are not equipped to meet. And it’s community colleges that are feeling the squeeze for clinical sites the most.

References

Ackermann, A., Gore, T., Hewett, B., Harris, M. S., Lioce, L., Schnieder, R. S., … Martinez, P. a. (2013). Standards of Best Practice: Simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 9(6), ii–iii. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2013.05.008

Alexander, M., Durham, C. F., Hooper, J. I., Jeffries, P. R., Goldman, N., Kardong-edgren, S. S., … Tillman, C. (2014). NCSBN Simulation Guidelines for Prelicensure Nursing Programs. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 6(3), 39–42. http://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(15)30783-3

Hayden, J. K., Smiley, R. a, Alexander, M., Kardong-Edgren, S., & Jeffries, P. R. (2014). The NCSBN National Simulation Study: A Longitudinal, Randomized, Controlled Study Replacing Clinical Hours with Simulation in Prelicensure Nursing Education. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 5(2 Suppl), S1–S64. Retrieved from https://www.ncsbn.org/JNR_Simulation_Supplement.pdf

NLN Board of Governors. (2015). A Vision for Teaching with Simulation. NLN Vision Series, (April).