Assessment of a low-fidelity human patient simulator for the acquisition of nursing skills

Abstract

Assess the user-friendliness of a low-fidelity human patient simulator as a precursor to developing and evaluating nurses' health assessment knowledge and skills. An assessment tool was developed to assess nurse perceptions about the components and functions of the Nursing Anne Complete manikin in terms of its realism, perceived suitability for teaching purposes (rated on five-point scales from disagree to agree), and how it compared with other teaching tools (e.g., better than text book). The manikin was placed on hospital wards to assume patient realism and data was collected from two hospital sites over one month. Nurses (N=70) reported that most of the components and functions (appearance, movement, procedures and sounds) of Nursing Anne Complete were realistic, better than existing training products, and suitable for teaching purposes. Additional comments included suggestions for improvement. Overall, the results indicated that this manikin is a very useful training product for nursing education. Low-fidelity simulators may facilitate experiential learning concomitant with behaviour modification and improved health assessment competence of nurses. Moreover, utilising human simulators in nurse education has the potential to reduce the risk of adverse events and facilitate increased positive patient outcomes.