Development and Implementation of a digital Skills Simulation App for European Nursing Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Development and Implementation of a digital Skills Simulation App for European Nursing Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Skill training is complex and time-consuming and demands extensive lecture resources. Despite the development of various learning approaches, clinical skills appear to be a global educational challenge. Due to the lack of skill training centers in many European nursing educational institutions and the fact that clinical placement opportunities have been reduced, we argued that it was essential to develop new strategies to ensure that students were prepared for clinical practice

The object of the current project was to supply European student nurses with an innovative digital pedagogical tool aiming to enhance their clinical skills. In specific, our aim was to develop and implement a skills simulation app to provide an active and flexible student-focused learning approach.

The partnership of this project consisted of three European universities: The University of Stavanger (Norway}: Department of Health Studies and the Department of E-learning Development (NETTOP}, which was the lead partner. The participating organizations were The University of Nottingham (UK}:School of Health Sciences, and Universidad de Valencia San Vicente Martir (Spain}:Department of Nursing Care. The project group was interdisciplinary and included educational staff, technical staff, researchers and nursing students from all three universities. The partnerships has been fruitful as it has increased the transparency and mutual recognition of clinical nursing skills as well as our understanding of cultural and legal diversity of clinical nursing practices in England, Norway, and Spain.

The finished app is named “DigiSim nurse training”. The training app follows the underpinning principles of the Practical Skill Performance Model (Bjork, 1999). The app is available through App Store and Google Play.

The development of the app included to main activities:
1) Identification, consensus and quality assurance of simulation scenarios, concept of app and manuscript production
2)Technology and media development (design and solution).

First,consensus was reached by the three partners regarding inclusion of procedures that were relevant for all three partners. Preliminary draft films were conducted by the use of simple mobile cameras. These films were shared across institutions by a video collaboration tool that allowed for immediate feedback in a rigorous manner because inputted text was added at precise, time-marked points on the video, generating discussions.
Film manuscripts were developed by using a manuscript template including specifications of scene description, voiceover, text, and time and provided space for comments from all three countries.
A pilot film was carried out (subcutaneous injection). The pilot was discussed in workshops that included nursing students and has guided further film production of the remaining procedures.At last, a test version were provided to nursing students.

Digisim Nurse Training includes the offers the following alternatives:
1. Video: The ‘Video’ tab includes all the steps of the procedure performed by a professional nurse in a realistic context. It allows students to start watching the demonstration or download it for later offline viewing. The ‘Equipment’ tab has a list of all equipment required for the specific simulation selected.
2. Checklist: The ‘Checklist’ tab has a breakdown of key behaviours intended for students to follow and ‘tick’ once completed. This can help students to remember the sequence of steps for a procedure. If working in pairs, one person can use the list to assess the other,
3. Traning: The ‘Training’ tab provides students with audio instructions that can be played automatically as start to perform your simulation. Once students are are prepared, they can use this tab whilst performing a procedure. The app contains recommendations for use.

At university of Stavanger, the app was included as a part of skill training lectures for some of the students groups autumn 2020. Five focus group interviews were conducted regarding students experiences of the app. Preliminary analysis have shown that studens found the app very useful due to the “to the point” approach, the flexible use and the ability to monitor their own performance and progress.

The app has been published in App Store and Google Play. During the project period, the app has also been disseminated through conferences, social media and l through local presentations.

To sum up; The specific outcome of the current project is a newly developed practical skills simulation app on mobile devices for student nurses.

Due to the feedback from student representatives and preliminary findings from the focus group interviews, it is is expected that the simulation app in the current project will positively affect possibilities of achieving the desired clinical skills; this is due to the fact that practical skills simulations will supply a flexible, dynamic and interactive e-learning environment.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 306311 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITETET I STAVANGER & Country: NO

Project Partners

• THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
• FUNDACION UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE VALENCIA SAN VICENTE MARTIR