Multi-patient healthcare simulation is the most realistic experience of what nursing students will face as they enter into clinical practice. SimVS has solutions to increase the fidelity to replicate a nursing floor, including the SimVS IV, SimVS Nucleus, SimVS Call Intercom Intercom System, and more. The incorporation of realistic products into a multiple-patient simulation can help bring all learners’ clinical and practice into focus so that they can effectively provide care for all of the patients they are in charge of. Multi-patient nursing simulation allows students to train at a similar intensity level to what they will experience in the real world. This HealthySimulation.com article explores how the SimVS Call Intercom system can help schools create an innovative way of implementing a multi-patient clinical simulation that mimics real-world scenarios.
In classroom settings with minimal pressure and less hectic environments, students are able to foster a necessary sense of confidence as young nurses at a beginning level and begin to put the complex pieces together. Traditionally, in the simulation lab, nursing students usually provide team care to one patient. In the clinical environment, nursing students often care for one or two patients while under the supervision of a nurse educator. In this setting, students may have limited opportunities to make clinical judgments, prioritize, and delegate that is required when providing care to multiple patients. Research supports the need for students to have increased experiences in caring for multiple patients.
When new nursing graduates enter the workforce outside of the classroom and teaching settings, many of them are initially shocked by the intensity of their jobs and the situations they find themselves in. Training tools like SimVS can help with strategies to bridge the gap between academia and readiness for practice.
SimVS Call Intercom System and Monitors to Support Realism in Multiple Patient Simulations
SimVS has multiple products available to promote the realism of a quality multi-patient simulation. SimVS Call Intercom is a two-way communication system that allows Push-to-Talk communication between learners and instructors, enabling students to accept/decline alarms and calls for assistance. With configurable options for up to twenty beds, the new SimVS Telecom feature for real-time telecom capability can be added to any simulation center to increase the realism of the medical scenario.
The SimVS Call Intercom system will allow instructors to provide cues and communication that will require the learner to critically think, prioritize, delegate, and assess. With multiple patients that require care at the same time, the nursing student or new graduate nurse will need to be able to critically think to determine the highest priority need, the intervention to be completed, if the task can be delegated to another level of care provider, the ability to contact another care provider to request assistance, and more. In other words, the ability to function as a medical-surgical nurse.
The SimVS monitor system is one tool that can help schools create an innovative way of doing simulation training that mimics real-world scenarios. SimVS comes pre-programmed with a complete library of scenarios and includes the functionality to control multiple patients (SPs or manikins) from one central control tablet. SimVS displays all physiology and controls found on modern monitors, giving the simulations a real feel. Learners can quickly see the effects of their actions on the display of the patient and learn how their actions impacted the patient, positively or negatively.
The founders of SimVS recognized that existing healthcare simulation equipment was both expensive and cumbersome, so an effort was made to create more accessible alternatives that would enhance the clinical training experience. SimVS accomplished this by creating a product line of simulated patient virtual monitors, defibrillators, vital sign devices, call buttons, IV pumps, and ventilators.
The SimVS system allows a user to connect multiple tablets so the students can have a similar experience to the real world while learning with multiple patients, not just one. In addition to displaying the physiology of multiple patients, SimVS has built-in alarms and a call bell system for each patient that help make the simulation more realistic. The SimVS system can reproduce the sounds and distractions of a true hospital setting immerses students in the scenario.
View the HealthySimulation.com LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Create Immersive Clinical Bed Environments with Tablet-Based Simulated Medical Devices from SimVS to learn more!
Research on Multi-Patient Simulation
Gunberg Ross et al. (2022) conducted an integrative review for multiple-patient simulations and undergraduate nursing students. There is limited robust research exploring prelicensure nursing students’ outcomes related to multiple-patient simulation. While current evidence suggests that multiple-patient simulations may increase students’ confidence and competence in some aspects of managing multiple-patient assignments, the findings are generally disparate and not generalizable. More research is warranted to support evidence-based teaching related to multiple-patient simulations in prelicensure nursing education.
Gamble (2017) evaluated simulation in undergraduate pediatric nursing curricula for delivering care in a ward environment. This simulation focused on a complex ward experience that provided students with the opportunity to demonstrate a variety of psychomotor skills, decision-making, leadership, teamwork, and other professional attributes integral to a successful transition into the clinical arena. Positive impacts on critical nursing concepts and psychomotor skills resulted in participants in clinical placement and beyond into the first months of employment.
Tarhan & Yildirim (2023) examined the effect of repeated multi-patient simulation on readiness for practice for senior nursing students. The study explored the effect of repeated exposure to multi-patient simulations on senior nursing students’ pre-graduation transition views, QSEN knowledge level and self-competency, professional readiness, and postgraduation transition shock. A randomized controlled trial of intervention and control groups with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up was conducted in Istanbul, Turkey. There was a statistically significant improvement in the intervention group between the pretest and the posttest for self-confidence, QSEN knowledge level, and professional readiness. The QSEN knowledge level and professional competency of the intervention group were higher than those of the control group. These results suggest that multi-patient simulations may be an effective strategy to better prepare students for the health care system’s demands.
Beroz (2016) explored performance outcomes for senior nursing students in a multi-patient simulation. This pilot study explored the performance outcomes of final semester nursing students in a multiple-patient simulation. Twelve students were evaluated by an independent rater who viewed videotapes to measure the behaviors using the Seattle University Simulation Evaluation Tool. The data found that the students were unable to consistently prioritize, delegate, and communicate the plan of care while in an environment with competing demands. The findings support the use of multiple-patient simulation.
National League for Nursing Resources for Multi-patient Simulation
The purpose of the National League for Nursing Simulation Innovation and Resource Center (SIRC) is to develop a community of nurse educators who can effectively use simulation to promote and evaluate student learning and who dialogue with one another to advance simulation in nursing education. The SIRC site offers many resources for nursing simulationists.
The SIRC Tools and Tips webpage has links and resources to the National League for Nursing Multi-patient Simulation Template and Toolkit. This toolkit offers a multi-patient simulation template, operational guide, simulation template, and reference to guide the development of a multi-patient scenario.
More About SimVS
Today, SimVS is one of the world’s most successful providers of simulated medical device monitors, boasting thousands of unit installations on devices across the globe. The founders of SimVS recognized that existing healthcare simulation equipment was both expensive and cumbersome, so an effort was made to create more accessible alternatives that would enhance the clinical training experience. SimVS accomplished this by creating a product line of simulated patient virtual monitors, defibrillators, vital sign devices, call bells, ventilators, and more. SimVS has emerged as a trailblazer in the development of affordable simulated medical device technology to enhance the realism of the experiential learning environment.
