Healthcare is in a state of rapid change. Although practice environments have become more complex, educational delivery methods have remained stagnant. Innovative technologies provide opportunities to enhance nursing student learning and help nursing programs become more responsive to changes in the practice environment; however, obstacles may hinder successful implementation. With the increasing complexity of today’s health care environment, innovations in nursing curricula are necessary. This chapter explores some of the general challenges associated with the integration of innovative educational technologies, as well as some challenges unique to virtual simulation. It helps the reader to analyze the challenges of integrating educational technologies into nursing education associated with faculty, administrators, and students. It also helps the reader to examine practical and philosophical barriers related to technology integration and explores challenges unique to the adoption of virtual simulation.

Simulation has many advantages for nursing education, some of which include creating safe learning environments for students and reinforcing information learned in the classroom; it also has the advantage of being available in inclement weather as well as 24 hours a day for student access. Simulation in nursing is one of many methods used for teaching students. Teaching and learning in a virtual learning environment has many advantages for administrators, faculty, and students. One of the advantages includes the use of other disciplines to help create or participate in a virtual world learning experience. The virtual learning environment can be created to look similar to real communities, disaster areas, or homes, with avatars populating that environment. The advantage to using virtual reality, rather than a real-life experience, is that in real life, students could be immersed in an environment that could cause them harm.

Students are able to “experience” rare and complex clinical situations before entering into practice so that the first time they care for these types of patients is not in a crisis situation. The scenario presented in this chapter demonstrates the use of simulation in increasingly complex situations and will be applicable to senior- level undergraduate and entry-level advanced practice students (master’s and doctoral preparation). This chapter focuses on the assessment, differential diagnosis, and initial management of the patient who presents to the emergency department (ED) with complaints of crushing sub-sternal chest pain. The student is required to conduct a rapid history and physical; develop an initial diagnosis; initiate lifesaving therapy; and use effective communication techniques with the patient, family, and members of the interdisciplinary health care team in order to successfully meet the objectives of the scenario.

This chapter examines the musculoskeletal and integumentary systems and reviews physiological and systematic assessment of the musculoskeletal system and related nursing tools. It describes pressure ulcers, passive range of motion (PROM) and active range of motion (AROM), burn management, traction, and the effects of decreased mobility. Instructors are encouraged to discuss the costs of pressure ulcers and the reimbursement process related to health care organizations when patients develop nosocomial pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcers are also costly to the patient in terms of pain and suffering. PROM exercises are exercises that the nurse or nursing student can perform for the patient who cannot independently exercise or move an extremity. AROM exercises are an exercise therapy that the patient can perform independently. There are three phases of burn management: emergent phase, acute phase, and rehabilitation phase.

This chapter explains how simulation-based pedagogy has contributed to improved student outcomes and presents the guidelines to be used in the deteriorating patient simulation initiative. As simulation continues to gain traction in the preparation of undergraduate nursing students, specific strategies are being developed to enhance performance in the practice area. One such strategy includes a comprehensive high-fidelity simulation (HFS) intervention that is aimed at improving recognition and response to the rapidly deteriorating patient. The intervention includes pediatric- and adult-based acute care scenarios. There may be opportunity to expand the simulation initiative to other nursing specialties, to less experienced nursing students, and in a variety of geographical locations. There is also opportunity to conduct further research in understanding the role of simulation in improving competence and confidence in the recognition and response to rapidly deteriorating patients.

The field of perinatal grief, or working with families that experience a pregnancy or neonatal loss, requires excellent communication and interpersonal skills. In an exploratory descriptive study, Modiba identified that midwives and physicians lacked appropriate knowledge of how to support mothers experiencing a pregnancy loss. McCreight, in an exploratory qualitative study, identified that nurses’ own emotion and personal beliefs impact their own philosophy of caring for bereaved parents. Research by Chan and Arthur further identified that nurses need increased knowledge and training on how to cope with bereaved parents. They concluded that bereavement counseling education and preceptorship supervision should be included in nursing education to reduce the stressfulness of the experience, increase the confidence and expertise of novice nurses, and promote better care for bereaved parents. As traditional undergraduate nursing students often have limited exposure to bereavement, it is important to provide opportunities in their education to address perinatal grief.

During the past several years, simulation pedagogy has taken off in leaps and bounds. The breadth of simulation design and implementation has become woven into the fabric of the majority of nursing education in the United States and beyond. As faculty members who teach in both graduate and undergraduate courses, the authors of this chapter find that simulation can be challenging to both the novice and seasoned educator. This chapter focuses on the use of simulation in the fundamental physical assessment course. The use of simulation technology is especially useful in creating the equivalent of “muscle memory” for the students because of the ability to do frequent and repetitive exercises using this technology. It is especially useful in assisting students to learn, develop, and mature their assessment skills. The chapter briefly describes specific objectives for simulation usage within a specific course and the overall program.

Learning how to insert intravenous (IV) catheters is quite possibly the skill student nurses look most forward to acquiring during their nursing education. In today’s nursing labs, IV education has fallen on hard times as a result of financial and litigious concerns. Carefully developed policies and procedures must be in place. Simulation allows students the opportunity to learn IV skills while taking away the potential risks to the nursing lab through the use of an IV simulator. It is the responsibility of nursing educators who acquire new equipment to provide an enriching and rewarding learning experience the nursing students whom the equipment is intended to benefit. Implementation of IV simulation curriculum provides students with realistic experiences invoking critical thinking and increases the level of patient care and satisfaction provided by the students within the various health care environments in which they practice.

This chapter explores educational opportunities for promoting cultural competency. It describes action-focused strategies for educational innovation. Major emphasis is placed on individual instructor appraisal, course-level appraisal, and innovations within face-to-face classroom, hybrid, and online course components. The transcultural self-efficacy tool (TSET) can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions implemented within a course. Accurate knowledge and comprehension about learner characteristics is a necessary precursor to textbook selection and the preparation of reading assignments. Films, movies, or videos provide unique opportunities to enhance student cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning. Many software programs feature unfolding case studies or spotlight various aspects of health assessment, nursing interventions and treatment, clinical procedures, pathophysiology, discharge planning, and so on. Although workshops can create a positive difference in student success, an integrated nursing student test enhancement program (INSTEP) offers a more coordinated, consistent, cohesive solution.

Nurse anesthesia programs are faced with the critical challenge of preparing students to practice safely and effectively in the demanding and emotionally charged perioperative environment. The nursing literature has begun to recognize the importance of noncognitive factors, such as emotional intelligence (EI), on clinical performance and decision making. This chapter focuses on the use of targeted simulation as a tool to enhance EI of student registered nurse anesthetists. The primary objective of this scenario is to enhance EI skills in entry-level nurse anesthesia students preparing at either the master’s or doctoral level. The scenario presented in this chapter is envisioned for anesthesia students in the first year of the anesthesia program, but can be modified for use in undergraduate and graduate programs across disciplines. Other scenarios used to enhance EI skills have been developed for the middle and end of the anesthesia program.