A role-playing simulation approach toward studying nurses' decisions to listen to patients

To test a methodology that used role-playing responses by nurses to simulated patient disclosures, a three-part investigation was carried out at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Four simulated patients-with diagnoses of diabetes mellitus, alcoholism with bleeding ulcer, ulcerative colitis, and cancer of the large intestine-tape recorded 20- to 30-second segments on 12 topics pertaining to their illness. Six topics dealt with the patients' physical problems; six with psychological aspects of the problems. In the tests for nurses' willingness both to listen and to pass along information to the next nurse, the 48 tape-recorded segments of patient information were played for 16 volunteer nurses in a laboratory set up for the purpose. Although the nurses had an option of listening or preparing a medication, they were expected to listen to at least 16 of the 48 segments. Following this, they were asked to tape record a report on the patient for the nurse who would follow them. The nurses, on average, listened to 29 of the 48 segments. The diabetic patient was listened to least; the cancer and the colitis patients each received a similar amounts of attention. The nurses gave substantial amounts of information as well as interpretive data about the patients so that the methodology seemed to prove that nurses could become sufficiently involved in a simulated patient setting.