Supplementing Pharmacologic Didactic Lectures with High Fidelity Simulation: A Pilot Study

Abstract

BackgroundHigh fidelity simulation (HFS) is a useful method to teach practical clinical information without the risk of harming a live patient. It is a teaching method used in at least half of all nurse anesthesia programs (Cannon-Diehl, Rugari, & Jones, 2012), but not generally designed to focus specifically on pharmacology content. MethodsStudent Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs) (n = 15) participated in a pharmacology curriculum that included a traditional didactic lecture supplemented with a pharmacology-focused HFS experience. A pharmacology topic that was taught with didactic lecture alone was compared to a pharmacology topic supplemented with HFS using three sequential knowledge assessments. ResultsThere was no significant difference on the pretest scores between pharmacology content areas (p = .34). On the post test immediately following the simulation intervention, SRNAs scored 20% higher on the pharmacology content supplemented with simulation and 1% lower on the content that was taught by traditional didactic lecture alone (p < .01). One month later, the SRNAs maintained a score 20% higher than the pretest on the content supplemented with simulation while scoring 15% lower than the pretest on content only taught via didactic lecture alone (p < .01). ConclusionsThis pilot study strongly suggests that incorporating simulation into a nurse anesthesia pharmacology curriculum enhances knowledge acquisition and knowledge retention.