International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background:

Simulation is known to improve clinical skills and team communication. A full-day neonatal emergency simulation course was established in 2018 for paediatric postgraduate doctors in training. It consists of four scenarios and two workshops for eight candidates; running 4 times per year. The candidates are split into 2 groups allowing each to ‘lead’ a scenario with traditionally faculty placed as nursing plants. In contrast, simulations run on our neonatal unit involve both nursing staff and medical candidates, allowing for true multidisciplinary working. Access and funding for simulation can be more difficult for nurses but it is known that the protected environment and the sense of security enhance nursing students’ self-esteem and confidence, thus promoting learning [1]. The aim of the study was to make the SHINE course more authentic to real life with a multidisciplinary approach to the scenarios; to see if inviting neonatal unit nurses to the course affected the postgraduate doctors in training feedback (which has always been consistently positive); and to assess if the nurses felt it was beneficial for their training.

Methods:

We invited four nurses to SHINE who were about to complete their Neonatal Qualified in Specialty (QIS) Course. They took the nursing role in the scenarios either caring for the baby (a manikin) in the neonatal unit or carrying the labour ward delivery nursing bleep. We evaluated the relevance, confidence levels, and the learning environment for both the doctors and nurses attending the course via a written anonymous survey.

Results:

The doctor’s feedback was very positive and comparable to previous courses ran with all of them recommending the course to their colleagues, and they felt they had enough opportunity to interact. The nurses felt sessions were very relevant to their current practice and all of them improved their level of confidence. They felt there was the correct number of scenarios and workshops; that the debriefings were well structured and educational; the learning environment was safe and supportive; and all would recommend the course to a colleague. Comments included ‘Really enjoyed the day and it has definitely helped me to feel more confident – especially as I’ve only just started holding the bleep.’

Conclusion:

SHINE is a well-established sought-after course shown to be effective and highly valued by paediatric postgraduate doctors in training. Given the positive feedback, we will be inviting four nurses to each SHINE course and integrating it in to Qualified in Specialty training.

Reference

1. Koukourikos K, Tsaloglidou A, Kourkouta L, Papathanasiou IV, Iliadis C, Fratzana A, Panagiotou A. Simulation in Clinical Nursing Education. Acta Inform Med. 2021;29(1):15–20.