Abstract
Securing clinical locations for Bachelor of Nursing Science (BSN) programs is always a complex challenge, particularly when clinical experiences are focused on vulnerable populations such as pediatric psychiatric patients. To provide students with a meaningful clinical experience during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a telehealth simulation centered on a pediatric psychiatric patient with unfolding adolescent depression and suicidal ideation. This case study uses qualitative data analysis of student debriefing sessions as well as a pre/post test design to explore the effectiveness of the simulation. Results suggest that simulations can be useful for presenting unique patient scenarios focused on therapeutic communication in psychiatric assessment, particularly for vulnerable patient populations. Quantitative data analysis showed BSN students improved their understanding of communication needs of adolescents and retained their knowledge over time; qualitative comments showed that students felt the simulation was a valuable learning experience and achieved key learning outcomes.
Highlights
Securing clinical locations for Bachelor of Nursing Science (BSN) programs is always a complex challenge, when clinical experiences are focused on vulnerable populations such as pediatric psychiatric patients
Can I step away from the video because I’m on the verge of tears?” The comments related to the content of this simulation allowed the faculty to see where the students gained insight into the mental health of an adolescent and gained confidence as a provider in approaching an adolescent through a difficult experience
Responses surrounding the theme of modality indicate effectiveness of online modality for clinical learning experience, with limitations noted: “[it was] difficult to read the patient body language and facial expressions”; “I didn’t like that it was on the computer, but I understand that is what we had to do”; “the online mental health simulation was beyond excellent.”
Summary
Securing clinical locations for Bachelor of Nursing Science (BSN) programs is always a complex challenge, when clinical experiences are focused on vulnerable populations such as pediatric psychiatric patients. To provide students with a meaningful clinical experience during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a telehealth simulation centered on a pediatric psychiatric patient with unfolding adolescent depression and suicidal ideation. The following case study describes how a nursing pediatrics course successfully pivoted a clinical learning experience focused on adolescent mental health to an online modality. A central objective of the pediatric nursing course is for students to apply therapeutic communication techniques when addressing the mental health needs of adolescent patients (minors) in the care of a family member. Such skills are not acquired through didactic coursework alone and need to be practiced under the protected supervision of those with psychiatric expertise. The simulation was fully developed as a face-to-face (F2F) clinical learning experience and scheduled to pilot on April 3, 2020
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