Ayşegül AÇIL
Duzce University Faculty of Health Sciences, Turkey
Title: The effect of a simulation game on nursing students’ reflective thinking skills
Biography
Biography: Ayşegül AÇIL
Abstract
It is indicated that there is a gap between the theory and practice aspects of nursing education (Karaöz,1997; GöriÅŸ,Bilgi ve Korkut Bayındır,2014; Stanley ve Latimer,2011). In nursing education, which involves cognitive, affective and pyschomotor learning areas, it is aimed that learners acquire required knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and convert their knowledge in practice areas to behaviour, and explicate their existant knowledge and produce different solutions in solving problems they encounter. To draw the attention and meet the learning needs of new generation of learners, who are named “the digital-born” because of today’s developing science and technological facilities, it is needed to use new teaching methods. It is believed that simulation games will have a bigger place in nursing education where different forms of simulation have taken place for quite a while.The clinical environment should be regulated to serve these purposes and the students should be supported (O’ Connor, 2006).
One of the teaching strategies used to provide competence in learning in nursing education is simulation (Ravert, 2002). The role-play simulations are group exercises in which two or more learners play their roles or a situation in front of a group of observers and reflect their reactions and tendencies. This method is said to be an effective technique for students to acquire new experiences by observing other roles as well as experiencing their own roles (Lane,Slavin ve Ziv,2001). Increasingly evolving information reveals the need for students to learn faster and more efficiently (Ünver,2015). Traditional teaching methods are inadequate to meet the learning needs of students and prepare them for the 21st century (Lim- Ng, 2008, Tharman, 2006). It is emphasized that learners should question the information, skills, attitude and behaviours until they can associate them with previously acquired knowledge, and that they should examine why the information is true or false. One way of thinking addressing this goal is reflective thinking.
Literature review shows that in Turkey, studies on reflective thinking skills is mainly focused on theacher candidates,secondary school students, and that such studies focused on nursing students are limited. Therefore, our study that aims to evaluate the effect of a roleplay game on the reflective thinking skills of nursing students will facilitate further studies and act as a resource for them.
Study will make use of a mixed method in which both quantitive and qualitative research methods are used in conjunction. There will not be a method for sampling, and sample will consist of 20 students who accepts to join voluntarily, out of 97 students who do not take part in internship programme.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, for a total of 7 days of the game "The Ward" will be conducted with the students one day a week, followed by debriefing, after which students will be asked to write reflective writing. At the end of the process, a questionnaire will be applied to determine the opinions of the students about the simulation game. The analysis of the data will be carried out using descriptive statistics, parametric and non-parametric test and content analysis, the results and recommendations will be shared.
Keywords: nursing students, nursing, education, student, simulation game, reflective thinking