AUTHOR PAMELA SLAVEN-LEE
Over my years of staffing, organizing and refining simulation-based learning events and how we use them in nurse practitioner education, I’ve seen learning happen. I’ve watched the proverbial “light bulb come on,” as students examine a standardized patient, or receive feedback from an instructor after an Objective Clinical Structured Exam exercise.
Our undergraduate colleagues, however, are ahead of us in establishing a body of literature to support simulation events and introducing best practices for instituting them. Too often, I still hear of simulation being used for summative assessments rather than formative learning. Experience shows that simulation used in high-stakes testing does not benefit our students and, in reality, can shake their confidence. True learning occurs and confidence is built through a formative use of simulation.
Now is the time to establish these best practices.
During GW Nursing’s March simulation conference, I invited my graduate colleagues to join us in a simulation consortium, where we can acknowledge challenges before us, share resources and establish best practices. I now broaden that invitation to those readers interested in helping develop the use of simulation in advanced practice nursing education.
Join us and let’s build a future of graduate simulation together.
To get involved, visit go.gwu.edu/simconsortium today.
Pamela Slaven-Lee, DNP, FNP-C, CHSE
Sr. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
School of Nursing
The George Washington University