Using simulation and electronic health records to train nursing students in prevention and health promotion interventions

Abstract

Background Prevention and health promotion activities are key to reducing prevalence and halting the progress of many chronic diseases. Standardised patient simulation is a useful option for training nursing students in this area. Objective To evaluate skills related to prevention and health promotion activities acquired by third-year nursing students through standardised patient simulation and electronic health records. Design A descriptive, cross-sectional study. Settings A nursing faculty at a public university. Participants The study population consisted of all third-year nursing students in the academic year 2017-2018 (N = 142). Methods The students attended three seminars on health promotion and prevention activities in adults, involving standardised patient simulation and electronic health record use. Skill acquisition was then evaluated through clinical case simulation in a fourth seminar. Results A total of 137 (96.5%) students participated in the study. The mean score for all cases evaluated was 6.76 (standard deviation 1.85) out of 10. The most frequent activities were greeting and self-introduction, checking vaccination status, assessing physical exercise and eating habits, and calculating body mass index. The least frequent activities were questions about high-risk sexual behaviour, drug use, bowel cancer screening and sun protection recommendations. When writing the nursing report, students found it hardest to plan future patient interventions. Also, 108 students made notes to set reminders of case-related activities. Conclusions Third-year nursing students acquire good skills in health promotion and prevention activities. Some activities requiring a greater degree of confidence with the patient need to be reinforced, such as investigating high-risk sexual behaviour and drug use. Reinforcement is also needed in activities that are encountered less often in clinical practice, such as sun protection recommendations and bowel cancer screening. The use of electronic health records in conjunction with simulation enhances self-study