How to Partner With Persons Living With Mental Health Conditions: A Guide for Meaningful Simulation Cocreation.

SUMMARY STATEMENT: Screen-based simulation is an effective educational strategy that can enhance health care students' engagement with content and critical thinking across various topics, including mental health. To create relevant and realistic simulations, best-practice guidelines recommend the involvement of experts in the development process. We collaborated with persons with lived experience and community partners to cocreate a mental health-focused screen-based simulation. Cocreating meant establishing a nonhierarchical partnership, with shared decision-making from start to finish.In this article, we present 8 principles developed to guide our cocreation with persons with lived experience: person-centeredness, trauma-informed approaches and ethical guidance, supportive environment, two-way partnership, mutual respect, choice and flexibility, open communication, and room to grow. These principles provide practical guidance for educators seeking to engage the expertise of persons who have been historically disadvantaged in society. By sharing these principles, we strive to contribute to a more equitable process in simulation development and promote meaningful, respectful, and safer collaborations.

Virtual clinical simulation to teach mental health concepts: a scoping review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to determine the extent of the literature on the use of virtual clinical simulation to teach health professional students about mental health. INTRODUCTION: Graduates of health professional programs need to be prepared to provide safe and effective care for persons with a mental illness in every practice context. Clinical placements in specialty areas are difficult to obtain and cannot ensure students will have opportunities to practice specific skills. Virtual simulation is a flexible and innovative tool that can be used in pre-registration health care education to effectively develop cognitive, communication, and psychomotor skills. Given the recent focus on virtual simulation usage, the literature will be mapped to determine what evidence exists regarding virtual clinical simulation to teach mental health concepts. INCLUSION CRITERIA: We will include reports that focus on pre-registration health professional students and use virtual simulation to teach mental health concepts. Reports that focus on health care workers, graduate students, patient viewpoints, or other uses will be excluded. METHOD: Four databases will be searched including MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Reports with a focus on mental health virtual clinical simulation for health professional students will be mapped. Independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts, then review the full texts of articles. Data from studies meeting the inclusion criteria will be presented in figures and tables, and described narratively. REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/r8tqh.

Motivation and Engagement of Nursing Students in 2 Gamified Courses: A Mixed-Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that gamification increases student engagement in course activities. However, student feedback about gamification in nursing contexts is needed. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to describe nursing student perceptions of how gamification impacts student motivation and engagement. METHODS: A convergent mixed-methods study was conducted. Surveys were completed by 58 first-year nursing students. Survey comments and data extracted from the learning management system were also collected. RESULTS: Students generally found gamification valuable, interesting, and enjoyable. Gamification took effort and was perceived as important. Students felt that they had some choice in participation in the gamified activities. CONCLUSIONS: Gamification is a viable strategy for promoting motivation and engagement among first year nursing students. More qualitative research is needed to enable game design refinement through investigation of contextualized student experiences. Refined game design may impact the development of learner skills through a moderating effect on engagement in course activities.

The barriers to and benefits of conducting Q-sorts in the classroom.

AIM: To outline the barriers to and benefits of using Q methodology in a classroom. BACKGROUND: Q methodology has been established as a systematic way to measure subjectivity that is consistent with the naturalistic paradigm. While it is often confused with quantitative methods, it provides the qualitative researcher with powerful tools to investigate the diverse subjective experiences and perceptions of participants. DATA SOURCES: Reflections in this paper stem from the experiences of the authors and are supported by literature. DISCUSSION: Barriers to conducting a Q-sort activity in the classroom are context dependent and may include limitations of the environment, time constraints as well as issues with comprehension. Despite these barriers, using a classroom for the activity can also enhance student learning, increase participation in research, clarify instructions, enrich study feedback and promote accessibility of the study population. CONCLUSION: With an understanding of potential pitfalls of using this methodology in the classroom setting, nurse researchers can develop strategies to reduce these barriers and enhance the quality of future research. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE/RESEARCH: Q-methodology is an alternate way of measuring the subjective views of individuals in a variety of settings such as clinical practice, research and educational institutions. Q-sorts may be used for research and/or classroom activities because the activity can promote discussion related to the content of a class. If using an activity like this one, educators and researchers need to be mindful of potential barriers to sorting in order to minimise them and maximise the potential of the activity.

First year nursing students' viewpoints about compromised clinical safety.

OBJECTIVE: Undergraduate nursing students must uphold patient safety as a professional and moral obligation across all clinical learning experiences. This expectation commences at entry into the nursing program. As part of a larger study exploring undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students' understanding of clinical safety, this paper specifically focuses on first year students' viewpoints about unsafe clinical learning situations. METHODS: Q-methodology was used. Sixty-eight first year nursing students participated in the ranking of 43 statements indicative of unsafe clinical situations and practices. Data was entered into a Q-program for factor analysis. RESULTS: The results revealed a typology of four discrete viewpoints of unsafe clinical situations for first year students. These viewpoints included an overwhelming sense of inner discomfort, practicing contrary to conventions, lacking in professional integrity and disharmonizing relations. Overall, a consensus viewpoint described exonerating the clinical educator as not being solely responsible for clinical safety. DISCUSSION: This information may assist students and educators to cooperatively and purposefully construct a clinical learning milieu conducive to safety.

Unsafe clinical practices as perceived by final year baccalaureate nursing students: Q methodology.

BACKGROUND: Nursing education necessitates vigilance for clinical safety, a daunting challenge given the complex interchanges between students, patients and educators. As active learners, students offer a subjective understanding concerning safety in the practice milieu that merits further study. This study describes the viewpoints of senior undergraduate nursing students about compromised safety in the clinical learning environment. METHODS: Q methodology was used to systematically elicit multiple viewpoints about unsafe clinical learning from the perspective of senior students enrolled in a baccalaureate nursing program offered at multiple sites in Ontario, Canada. Across two program sites, 59 fourth year students sorted 43 theoretical statement cards, descriptive of unsafe clinical practice. Q-analysis identified similarities and differences among participant viewpoints yielding discrete and consensus perspectives. RESULTS: A total of six discrete viewpoints and two consensus perspectives were identified. The discrete viewpoints at one site were Endorsement of Uncritical Knowledge Transfer, Non-student Centered Program and Overt Patterns of Unsatisfactory Clinical Performance. In addition, a consensus perspective, labelled Contravening Practices was identified as responsible for compromised clinical safety at this site. At the other site, the discrete viewpoints were Premature and Inappropriate Clinical Progression, Non-patient Centered Practice and Negating Purposeful Interactions for Experiential Learning. There was consensus that Eroding Conventions compromised clinical safety from the perspective of students at this second site. CONCLUSIONS: Senior nursing students perceive that deficits in knowledge, patient-centered practice, professional morality and authenticity threaten safety in the clinical learning environment. In an effort to eradicate compromised safety associated with learning in the clinical milieu, students and educators must embody the ontological, epistemological and praxis fundamentals of nursing.