Replacing community clinical hours with an antepartum simulation-based experience

Community and population health is an essential part of pre-licensure nursing education. Securing community clinical sites for large cohorts of nursing students is challenging. Individual community sites in nursing specialty areas, such as women's health, limit the number of students, making it difficult to provide a consistent clinical experience for all students. The literature shows simulation is an effective alternative to traditional clinical hours.

This article describes a pilot simulation-based antepartum experience in the community setting. This simulation-based experience replaced the clinical hours for a previous traditional clinical experience in the community setting, for which students were only able to observe and not interact. The objectives were to allow students to be engaged in communication, patient education, and anticipatory guidance with a live patient.

Faculty at a large southeastern university created an antepartum simulation-based clinical experience focused on important elements of obstetrics and maternal health assessment utilizing standardized patients.

Student responses from the post-simulation survey showed 96 % strongly agreed they were more confident in communicating with clients.

Faculty concluded this simulation-based experience is an effective alternative to traditional community clinical experiences in the antepartum setting.