O5 Involving young people in simulation in nurse education

Abstract

Introduction Adult service users and carers in the UK have been involved in nursing research and the education of student nurses for many years. However, this is less evident with children and young service users. Much of the published literature relates to asking children what makes a good nurse and involving them in curriculum design (Randall et al., 2008; Summers, 2013) with less emphasis on involvement in the classroom. Methods A qualitative descriptive study was undertaken to explore the impact of young people’s involvement in simulation with undergraduate students of children and young people’s nursing. The participants included 11 young people (16–18 years old), 21 nursing students (Year 2, CYP field of practice) and 5 lecturers. The young people were involved in all aspects of a planned simulation session for 2nd year undergraduate nursing students. This involved working with the young people so that they could write a scenario, develop a feedback tool and provide feedback to the students. Following the simulation day data was collected via semi-structured interviews with the young people and lecturers and focus group interviews with the nursing students. Data was analysed using the thematic framework approach (Ritchie and Spencer, 1994). Results Three key concepts were identified following data analysis: Authenticity in simulation Feeling safe in simulation Power relations and the empowerment of young people. Discussion Several new findings, not previously reported in the literature have emerged: Young people make a meaningful contribution to the education of children’s nurses when undertaking simulation. Young people feel valued and listened–to when contributing to the education of CYP nursing students. Nursing students value the contribution that young service users bring to a simulation session. Young people enhance the authenticity of a simulated scenario through developing the scenario, being the ‘voice’ of the manikin and providing service user feedback. Conclusion It is proposed that the authenticity of the simulation was enhanced by empowering the young people to be involved in simulation. However, as found in the literature there are additional factors which influence how students react to the simulation despite the involvement of service users, it didn’t increase or decrease anxiety and warrants further study in terms of quantitative measurement of anxiety in simulation. References Randall D, Brook G, Stammers P. How to make good children’s nurses: Children’s views. Paediatric Nursing2008;20(5):22–25. Ritchie J, Spencer L. Qualitative data analysis for applied policy research. In: Bryman and Burgess (eds.), Analysing qualitative data 1994. London: Routledge: 173–194. Summers K. Children’s nurse education. British Journal of Nursing2013;22(13):747–750.