Use of Simulation to Develop Teamwork Skills in Prelicensure Nursing Students: An Integrative Review

While use of simulation to improve teamwork skills has been established in a variety of clinical settings, it is unclear how teamwork skills of nursing students are developed using simulation.

The purpose of this review was to synthesize literature on how simulation is used to teach teamwork skills to prelicensure nursing students.

The integrative review of the literature was conducted using the Whittemore and Knafl 5-stage methodology and the TeamSTEPPS framework.

Twenty-one articles were included in the review. Each of the articles reviewed used a component of TeamSTEPPS. The most common TeamSTEPPS concept addressed in the simulations was communication followed by mutual support.

While simulation appears to be an appropriate methodology to teach teamwork skills to prelicensure nursing students, it is evident that some of those skills are not being taught using the TeamSTEPPS framework.