The role of virtual simulation in undergraduate nursing students’ confidence when de-escalating a patient demonstrating escalating behaviour

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Date
2022-03-11
Authors
Conrad, Meghan
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Abstract

Undergraduate nursing students are unprepared to manage patients demonstrating escalating aggressive behaviour encountered during their clinical placements. This unpreparedness in part increases their vulnerability during volatile scenarios. Confidence and competence surrounding de-escalation skills can be achieved through virtual simulated learning opportunities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions of confidence and success in their de-escalation skills following a virtual simulation intervention. The potential impact of participants identified age, gender, ethnicity, and year in the program on overall outcomes were also evaluated. A quantitative, one group pretest-posttest design was used to complete this study. Students were recruited using a convenience sampling method. Students in all years of the College of Nursing (N=720) were contacted through email by the Manitoba Centre for Nursing and Health Research (MCNHR). Once consent was obtained, participants were directed to complete a 10-question demographic questionnaire with four additional questions on participants’ psychosocial well-being in light of the pandemic, and a nine-question pre- and post-virtual simulation de-escalation confidence and knowledge survey. The virtual de-escalation simulation provided to participants was one created by the Canadian Alliance of Nurse Educators Using Simulation (CAN-Sim) took approximately 20 minutes to complete. Descriptive statistics as well as paired t-tests were used to analyze the survey data. Through this analysis, it was found that a virtual simulation on de-escalation positively impacted participants feelings of confidence and success. These findings emphasize the simplicity of effective de-escalation education and should serve to encourage undergraduate nursing institutions to start conversations on the importance of providing comprehensive violence prevention education to their students.

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Keywords
nursing, simulation, virtual simulation, escalating behaviour, agitation, aggression, nursing student, de-escalation, nursing education
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