Public Health Simulation-Infused Program (PHSIP) for Nursing Education.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Public Health
• Simulation-Based Education

Background:

• Recent health crises highlight the need for nurses skilled in public health.
• Nursing students often lack public health knowledge and awareness of its importance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a scaffolded public health simulation-infused program (PHSIP) for pre-licensure nursing students.
• To assess the impact of PHSIP on students' public health knowledge and perception of simulation-based education (SBE).

Main Methods:

• 341 pre-licensure nursing students participated in a curriculum-integrated PHSIP.
• Public health knowledge was assessed pre- and post-SBE.
• The Simulation Effectiveness Tool-Modified (SET-M) measured student perceptions of the SBE experience.

Main Results:

• Students achieved high mean SET-M scores (83%), indicating positive perceptions of the SBE.
• Post-test knowledge scores were significantly higher than pre-test scores (p < 0.001).
• The average knowledge score increased to 70% with a large effect size (0.82).

Conclusions:

• Scaffolding public health SBEs across the nursing curriculum provides continuous exposure and enhances knowledge.
• Chunking pre-SBE training is crucial to prevent cognitive overload.
• Nursing educators should adopt PHSIP to equip students with vital public health knowledge and skills.