The Operating Theatre Journal - Flipbook - Page 22
The results showed that 100% of participants of the surveys reported
a perceived improvement in skills, this suggests that the SBE had an
overall positive impact on knowledge and skills acquisition. This has
significance on the use of SBE as a learning experience for healthcare
students, particularly as SBE is a reproducible activity that students
can practice without exposing patients to any risks. The results also
suggested an increase in perceived confidence in 91% of participants,
with 25% saying that their confidence improved a little, and 66% saying
that they felt their confidence had improved considerably following the
simulation. These outcomes suggest that this intervention improved
perceived confidence in most participants. The results of the pre
simulation survey show that 9% of participants strongly agreed that
they had pre-simulation anxiety about performing in a cardiac arrest
situation, with 82% also agreeing and only one participant disagreeing.
This means that the majority of participants (90%) felt some form of
anxiety about knowing what to do in a cardiac arrest situation, and
only one participant said they did not feel anxious. These results are
indicative of widespread initial anxiety amongst this sample of students.
Some of this anxiety could be attributed to lack of prior experience, as
they were still completing their studies and may not have had exposure
to this kind of life-threatening situation whilst on clinical placement.
Participants were asked to rate their abilities after the simulation, 67%
said they felt a little more able to identify patient needs, and 33% said
they felt much more able to identify patient needs in a cardiac arrest
situation. This change in perceived ability suggests the simulation had
a positive impact on participants’ abilities to react to changing patient
needs in an emergency situation.
It is important to acknowledge the fact that there was one participant
who deviated from others in that they reported a decrease in confidence
and a marked increase in anxiety since the simulation. There are
several theoretical factors that could have influenced the result for this
participant; It could be that the simulation caused increased anxiety
because they felt overwhelmed or that they may have underperformed,
felt discomfort at being watched by their peers or that they were made
aware of the nature of their role in performing lifesaving interventions
and this could be a deterrent for some healthcare students.
This study has sought to contribute towards a lesser-known profession
of operating department practice, for which there is very little
evidence available to guide practice. The findings of this study suggest
a correlation between SBE and improvement in perceived clinical
confidence, knowledge, and skills in the majority of participants.
The evidence produced within this study does also suggest that SBE
can have a negative impact on the perceived confidence in a small
percentage (8%) of participants. This could have been due to poor
performance during the simulation, and could have been lessened by
providing more preparation and information to students. Educators
must not assume that all students are adequately prepared to perform
within a simulation activity and should, therefore be aware of that for
some students this could be an uncomfortable experience.
The results of this study could be used to contribute towards further,
larger scale research in the field of simulation for ODP programmes and
other allied health courses. As healthcare curricula are ever changing ,
this could help to meet requirements of regulatory body and National
Health Service (NHS) requirements for the future.
References
College of Operating Department Practitioners (2009). Scope of practice.
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The results of the follow up interviews suggest that the simulation
improved perceived confidence in this cohort of students, with
comments such as;
Harper, M. Markham, C,. And Givati, A, (2016). A pilot study of Operating
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“Yeah, it’s changed and I feel a lot more confident now if I have to and
if I would have experienced this in real life situation, I didn’t know
what to do [before] and what to expect, but now if I’m involved in a
cardiac arrest, I know what’s going on in front of me”, and another
participant said, “I will definitely feel like I’m more confident in dealing
with the situation because I haven’t seen it before and now, I know
what to expect. Before we did the simulation, I hadn’t even seen a
patient who was really sick or anything. I think I was scared of seeing
this before, but now I know I have to concentrate on what I have learnt
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Knowledge and Skills acquisition
In both the pre and post simulation surveys, knowledge and skills
were measured in questions 7 and 8, which asked about participants
knowledge of the reasons why patients go into a cardiac arrest, known
as the eight reversible causes (Resuscitation Council UK ,2015). They
were asked about their familiarity with the eight reversible causes
of cardiac arrest both before and after the intervention, as this topic
was covered as part of the simulation, so this was a way of measuring
knowledge acquisition.
It is encouraging to note here that 100% of participants of the surveys
reported a perceived improvement in skills, this suggests that the SBE
had an overall positive impact on knowledge and skills acquisition.
Conclusion
The results of this study suggest that SBE has a positive impact on
perceived clinical confidence, knowledge, and skills acquisition in most
of this cohort of ODP students. Participants reported stronger feelings
of confidence when dealing with future cardiac arrest situations and
although it is difficult to measure how this would translate to quality
of clinical practice, improvement in clinical confidence can contribute
towards better patient safety.
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