NLN-Jeffries Project: Educational Practices Construct

Abstract

Simulation has been at the forefront of nursing education recently and has advanced from simple task trainers to the integration of complex scenarios with high fidelity simulators. In many schools of nursing simulation exercises are replacing varying percentages of student’s hospital clinical hours. However, there have been concerns that simulation experiences are lacking in solid pedagogical foundations, rigor and consistently. The Jeffries framework (2005) identified five major constructs: teacher, student, educational practices, simulation design characteristics and outcomes. The educational practices construct has seven components including: collaboration, student/faculty interaction, active learning, diverse learning, feedback, time on task, and high expectations. An extensive literature review by three independent researchers revealed disparate uses of the educational practices terminology or, in some cases, that the terms were completely absent from the current literature. Consideration must be given to the use of alternative and consistent terminology and clear definitions when conducting research studies on simulation activities and when submitting the findings for publication.