Moving nurse educators towards transcendence in simulation comfort

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Simulation Technology

Background:

• Expensive simulation equipment is underutilized in nursing education.
• Nursing educators' comfort levels significantly impact simulation adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify factors influencing nursing educator comfort with simulation.
• To explore barriers and enhancers to simulation use in Australian nursing education.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative explorative research using interpretative constructivist methodology.
• Thematic analysis of focus group data from four university campus sites.
• Adapted Comfort Theory by Goodwin et al. (2007) guided the study.

Main Results:

• Four key themes emerged: Personal barriers, Human resource barriers, Structural barriers, and Suggestions for improvement.
• These themes directly impact nursing educators' comfort levels with simulation.
• Specific barriers and enhancers were identified across different campus sites.

Conclusions:

• Understanding identified barriers is crucial for improving educator comfort with simulation.
• Recommendations are outlined to enhance the integration and effectiveness of simulation in nursing education.
• Addressing these factors can lead to increased utilization of valuable simulation resources.