Other Titles

Clinical-based simulations

Abstract

Purpose: A charge nurse is responsible for patient safety, quality of care and team functioning during the shift. Also, the charge nurse must care for some patients in addition to performing management duties. Every Israeli registered nurse is expected to function as a charge nurse after about two years of nursing experience. Commencing performing charge nurse duties is a stressful situation for a novice nurse. The anxiety and uncertainty that novice charge nurses feel stem from lack of experience in managing other staff members, the multitask nature of the job and the required on-going, sometimes critical, decision making. This stress is aggravated by more complex in-patients and shortage in manpower which may avert rapid yet quality response to emerging needs. Traditionally, novice nurses learned to perform effective shift management through trial and error. In order to diminish this stress and increase effectiveness, the novice nurse should be specifically prepared for charge nurse duties. It is suggested that a specific workshop, based on simulations that portrayed real world situations in a controllable format, may provide an effective nurse's preparation for successful performance of the charge nurse duties.

Methods: The present study is a prospective and comparative with a convenience sample of 40 registered nurses during their first year of charge nurse duties' performance. 24 of them were trained for the charge nurse position by simulation-based workshop, while the others were prepared by lectures only. Both the groups were comparable in regard to age, gender and ethnicity. The study was based upon observations by the shift supervisors on the novice charge nurse's accomplishment of shift management's tasks. Each observation was scored by checklists that were developed and validated by the researchers. In addition, the Script Concordance Test, evaluating decision-making and self-confidence was performed by the novice charge nurses 6 month after commencing shift management. The questions were developed by researcher and validated by the expert judgment.

Results: The results indicate significantly higher performance levels of simulation group. Levels of decision-making and self-confidence are significantly higher amongst simulation group.

Conclusion: Simulation techniques provide a realistic yet safe learning environment that more closely represents clinical care, efficiently prepare novice nurses for shift management tasks and improve their self-confidence.

Author Details

Igal Zlatkin, RN, MA; Haia Peker, RN, MA

Sigma Membership

Phi Gamma (Virtual)

Type

Presentation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Charge Nurses, Nursing Professional Development, Simulation

Conference Name

25th International Nursing Research Congress

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Hong Kong

Conference Year

2014

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Share

COinS
 

Training nurses for charge nurse duties through simulation

Hong Kong

Purpose: A charge nurse is responsible for patient safety, quality of care and team functioning during the shift. Also, the charge nurse must care for some patients in addition to performing management duties. Every Israeli registered nurse is expected to function as a charge nurse after about two years of nursing experience. Commencing performing charge nurse duties is a stressful situation for a novice nurse. The anxiety and uncertainty that novice charge nurses feel stem from lack of experience in managing other staff members, the multitask nature of the job and the required on-going, sometimes critical, decision making. This stress is aggravated by more complex in-patients and shortage in manpower which may avert rapid yet quality response to emerging needs. Traditionally, novice nurses learned to perform effective shift management through trial and error. In order to diminish this stress and increase effectiveness, the novice nurse should be specifically prepared for charge nurse duties. It is suggested that a specific workshop, based on simulations that portrayed real world situations in a controllable format, may provide an effective nurse's preparation for successful performance of the charge nurse duties.

Methods: The present study is a prospective and comparative with a convenience sample of 40 registered nurses during their first year of charge nurse duties' performance. 24 of them were trained for the charge nurse position by simulation-based workshop, while the others were prepared by lectures only. Both the groups were comparable in regard to age, gender and ethnicity. The study was based upon observations by the shift supervisors on the novice charge nurse's accomplishment of shift management's tasks. Each observation was scored by checklists that were developed and validated by the researchers. In addition, the Script Concordance Test, evaluating decision-making and self-confidence was performed by the novice charge nurses 6 month after commencing shift management. The questions were developed by researcher and validated by the expert judgment.

Results: The results indicate significantly higher performance levels of simulation group. Levels of decision-making and self-confidence are significantly higher amongst simulation group.

Conclusion: Simulation techniques provide a realistic yet safe learning environment that more closely represents clinical care, efficiently prepare novice nurses for shift management tasks and improve their self-confidence.