SUBSTITUTING Simulations HANDS-ON INSTRUCTION GOES VIRTUAL BY CHUCK WASSERSTROM
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hen COVID-19 first arrived in Chattanooga in March, shutting down face-to-face learning, Jacob Fayiah was anxious about his status in his family nurse practitioner studies.
nursing actions during the virtual simulation scenarios, such as which action they would perform first. “And then we ask them questions if they miss something,” Peters says. “We give them a lot of feedback and a lot of coaching while they are going through their scenarios. “Simulation is where you’re going to apply your skills,” she says. “We continue to look at what is happening in the clinical setting and try to incorporate those scenarios, too.” A dozen different situations were recorded for Fayiah, on track to receive his master’s from the online instruction, with more planned during the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of upcoming winter break, she says. Nursing in May 2021, immediately thought of the Brittany Ambers, a nurse for six years who will be ramifications of not being able to go to a simulation lab. receiving her master’s in the family nurse practitioner “I worried a lot, and I was even thinking, ‘They’re concentration in May 2021, compares the virtual going to cancel the whole program, I don’t think we’re simulations with telemedicine appointments. going any further.’ I was actually shocked when they “Simulations by nature are like going to an said they were going to transition online,” he recalls. appointment at a doctor’s office. You put hands on “The first thing I thought was, ‘How am I going to the patient. You’re face-to-face with them. You create assess somebody that I can’t physically touch?’” the environment for the patient,” As Fayiah quickly learned, Ambers says. School of Nursing Simulation “It was hard to imagine how we Coordinator Rosebelle Peters and were going to do that onscreen in Amber Roche, nurse practitioner our own homes, but they made it as program coordinator, had already realistic as they possibly could have been hard at work putting The first thing I for us. What ended up happening is together creative virtual online that it was almost like you’re doing training sessions. Students quickly thought was, ‘How a telemedicine appointment with a found that learning how to ask am I going to assess patient which, in the age of COVID, patients the right questions is to know how to do.” paramount, regardless of being in somebody that I can’t is important Ambers says the virtual world the same room or on Zoom. required some extra practice on the physically touch?’ Simulation educators recorded part of students. In her case, her scenarios and delivered them husband stepped in as a “patient,” online, using what’s known as allowing her to practice specific “decision points.” assessment skills in-person in “Decision points are when conjunction with the online training. you pause a scenario and you “I think doing the simulations talk about what the nurse would virtually has been a benefit for my classmates and do in this situation,” Peters says. “The goal is to me just because you’re still getting the practice with generate critical-thinking opportunities, to generate interviewing patients and building rapport,” Ambers engagement and collaboration among students says. “And, like we do in regular simulation, you have because they can talk among themselves.” faculty watching you do it and giving you feedback Students were asked to choose from a list of
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ON CALL
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UTC.EDU/NURSING
