Exploring the use of computer simulation to teach critical decision-making skills to pediatric nursing students.

Abstract

I T IS vitally important that even beginning nurses have the ability to make appropriate judgements and effectively problem-solve in the care of their clients. The extent to which nursing students are given opportunities to learn both the theory and practice of critical decision-making skills depends on available time as well as on the choice of educational strategies used. Since it is well known that instructional time in nursing education is severely limited, essential factual material delivered by straight lecture is almost a practical necessity. Yet we expect students to make appropriate and effective nursing decisions in practice situations based primarily on facts. In addition to this, safety factors prohibit the free exercise of all possible alternatives in actual practice. Therefore, it would seem prudent to investigate the use of simulations (representative cases) in the educational setting. Students would be able to problem-solve independently and safely, thus freeing up instructor time as well as negating severe consequences to actual clients. It is from five basic premises that I explore the use of computer simulation to teach critical decision-making skills to nursing students: ( 1) the complexity of nursing today requires an ability to make critical decisions; (2) critical thinking is a universally expected behavior of professional nurses; (3) critical decision-making