The art of simulation based learning Enabling learners to practice a challenging new skill utilising simulation has one obvious advantage: it’s safe for all involved. When we see footage of pilots learning or honing their skills in flight simulators, our natural reaction is that it just makes sense. Simulation Based Learning (SBL) is now widely used in the education and training of healthcare students and registered professionals. Advances in technology have developed human patient simulators and task trainers, while virtual reality sessions are also increasingly common. Students are provided with realistic scenarios that require them to think under pressure – as they will have to during their careers. After a conventional lecture in the anatomy and physiology of the lungs, for example, student nurses can assess and manage a simulated patient pre-programmed to display characteristic symptoms of specific respiratory problems.
Maximising the potential Until relatively recently, however, the effectiveness of SBL varied – not least because many educators lacked confidence in using the equipment involved or did not prepare students adequately. Two senior lecturers in nursing at the University of Huddersfield have developed an international framework for the use of SBL in healthcare, which has provided guidelines for educators to use in educating student nurses and other health professionals using SBL strategies. This has provided educators with the knowledge and confidence to use SBL to its full potential. Drs Andrew Bland and Stephen Prescott, both senior lecturers in the University’s Department of Nursing and Midwifery, can trace the idea for the 04 | DISCOVER 2022
framework back to a conference coffee break chat with European counterparts. Dr Bland says: “Those conversations underlined for us that, while SBL strategies and associated technology was being developed at a rapid pace, educators weren’t really being taught how to use it or how to apply it in ways most beneficial for students.” With colleagues from Denmark and Finland, the collaboration secured funding from an EU programme to research how best to teach and assess using simulation. They carried out a literature search and drew on their own research and teaching to identify the skills, competencies, and aptitudes that an educator using simulation needs. This led to the creation of the Nurse Educator Simulation-Based Learning Framework (NESTLED). This was piloted in Finland, Denmark and Estonia – in collaboration with colleagues from the conference where the idea was born.
Linking learning to practice The framework helps educators prepare students for working with particular SBL strategies, for example working in small groups to develop teamworking and communication in the modern healthcare workplace. Dr Bland, whose PhD explored the role of simulation in undergraduate nurse education, explains: “Over the previous decade, SBL really started to accelerate in nursing and healthcare education and assessment. It is now used in undergraduate and post-registration nurse
