Nursing simulation practicum for delivery care: A scoping review

The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the state of the current body of knowledge on the use of nursing simulation for maternal nursing practicum with a focus on content and measured outcomes.

This is a scoping review.

The literature search was performed using five databases (CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science).

The review was conducted on quantitative and reflection/review studies that evaluated or described nursing simulation for delivery care, published between 2000 and 2020 in English and Korean. Two authors independently reviewed the studies and their references for additional literature search. Selected studies were charted to describe the study characteristics, and content and outcome of nursing simulation for delivery care.

Fifteen articles were included in the review, of which twelve were intervention studies and three were reflection/review studies. The duration of the nursing simulations for delivery care ranged from 20 min to 4 h, with two to eight students in each simulation group. All nursing simulations focused on the normal, uncomplicated delivery process, with nine studies engaging in debriefing, but without pre- and/or post-assessments. The most frequently measured outcomes were knowledge, satisfaction, and clinical practice competency.

Studies investigating nursing simulation pedagogy for delivery care were scarce, with limitations in the study designs and large variations in nursing simulation time across studies. Scenarios for nursing simulation for delivery care were rudimentary, and they usually focused on normal uncomplicated deliveries. The development of scenarios for high-risk deliveries and integration of pre-and/or post-assessments and debriefing into the nursing simulation are recommended to improve learning outcomes.