Critical Incident Videos: Developing a Cognitive Strategy in Simulation for Faculty Development

Despite recommendations put forth by the National League for Nursing to incorporate a scope of practice and develop core competencies for nurse educators, nursing education is experiencing the effects of a faculty shortage. Many schools of nursing find it necessary to hire faculty members who have limited preparation as educators. The purpose of this study was to develop critical incident videos (CIVs) and evaluate how CIVs captured common teaching challenges.

This mixed-methods study used a participatory action research approach and involved three parts: an online survey, development of CIVs, and focus groups.

The survey captured challenging teaching situations that were operationalized for development of 10 CIVs. Using CIVs in focus groups revealed six key themes: Role Clarification, Isolation, Teaching Communication, Teaching Learning to Learn, Teacher Development, and Usefulness.

CIVs were successful in capturing realistic teaching challenges and created opportunities for participants to use cognitive rehearsal, in the form of role-playing, to respond to these challenges. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(2):81-89.].