Article Preview
TopBackground
Nursing education uses High-Fidelity Human Simulation (HFHS) as an innovative teaching method that offers an active learning process. A high-fidelity human simulator allows the simulation to reach a higher interactive level while maintaining boundaries of practice and safety prior to the hands-on experience with patients (Campbell & Daley, 2009). Simulation offers a creative approach to tackle the challenges confronting nursing education, such as the increased acuity level of patients, nursing faculty shortage, reduced clinical sites, and the shifting role of nurses (Campbell & Daley, 2009).
HFHS is used in nursing education to offer an authentic learning experience, teach critical thinking and clinical judgment, facilitate skill acquisition, evaluate skill mastery, encourage teamwork, decrease performance anxiety, and reduce the possibility of medical errors (Cato, 2012; Owen & Follows, 2006). This cost- and time-intensive teaching method provides hands-on experience with a life-like mannequin and a debriefing session where guided reflection occurs allowing students to reflect and analyze their thoughts, feelings, and actions following the simulation experience.
As mentioned, HFHS is one method to use when teaching nursing students clinical experiences through an authentic learning strategy; however, there are a number of issues hindering the use of simulation in many organizations: simulation is expensive, requires highly technical support, and additional training for faculty (Dowie & Phillips, 2011). For this reason, HFHS is not available in every school of nursing. If a school has simulation equipment, video-taping capabilities may not be available, or the faculty is not familiar with the use of a video-assisted debriefing process. No matter what fidelity level is used in simulation, the debriefing stage must be an essential component of the simulation process.