Transferability of Mental Health Simulation Skills to Practice: A Nursing Post-Graduate Follow-Up Study.

Abstract

The purpose of the current descriptive qualitative follow-up study was to explore perceptions of post-graduate nurses regarding transferability of student-learned mental health simulation knowledge and skills to actual acute care practice settings. The study used a survey design of eight questions on SurveyMonkey® and there were 11 participants. Questions were specific to knowledge and skills learned as students in three mental health simulation labs and whether they transferred to post-graduate acute care practice settings. Thematic analysis identified the following main themes: Learned Effective De-Escalation Techniques, Felt More Prepared With Psychiatric Assessments, and Feeling Empathy for Patients Hearing Voices. Subthemes were Being Therapeutic With Patients and More Confident in Psychiatric Emergencies. Post-graduate nurses described being able to transfer use of student-learned mental health simulation knowledge and skills to acute care practice settings. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 61(7), 39-45.].