Effectiveness of Incorporating Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) methods into simulation-based education for nursing students: A quasi-experimental study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation reporting is a structured communication tool. In other studies of simulation-based education, learning was found to increase with increases in the level of flow during scenarios. Also, communication using SBAR was found to facilitate more focus on clinical situations. However, the generalizability of those findings in nursing education and the specific benefits of combining SBAR with simulation remain unclear. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study are to incorporate SBAR reporting into simulation-based nurse education, and measure its effects on the students' flow, communication competence, and communication self-efficacy among nursing students, to collect basic data for the development of effective nursing curricula. DESIGN: This study used a non-equivalent, quasi-experimental pre-post parallel design. SETTING: The intervention was administered in a simulation center at a nursing school in South Korea. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and twenty fourth-year nursing students were recruited through convenience sampling. METHODS: The participants were quasi-randomly allocated to the control (n = 52) and SBAR (n = 68) groups. The integrated simulation course was conducted twice each week. Learning and reporting SBAR was included as a component of simulation-based education for the intervention group in each session (three scenarios). The dependent variables were communication competence, communication self-efficacy, and flow in the simulation. RESULTS: SBAR did not affect communication competence or communication self-efficacy in simulation-based education. In contrast, while flow increased in both groups, the increase was greater in the SBAR group. CONCLUSIONS: SBAR can increase nursing students' flow in simulations. Further studies should focus on how SBAR during simulation-based education affects nursing students' practical competency.