Baccalaureate nursing students' experiences with multi-patient, standardized patient simulations using telehealth to collaborate

Nurse faculty must utilize teaching strategies that promote student achievement of essential competencies, and simulation can provide experiential learning to help prepare students for professional practice. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore baccalaureate nursing students' experiences with multi-patient, standardized patient simulations that used telehealth to provide opportunities to learn and practice intra- and interprofessional collaboration. Student perceptions of their ability to utilize lessons from the simulations in clinical practice were also examined. Focus group interviews were conducted with 27 final-semester baccalaureate nursing students after they had participated in two telehealth-enhanced simulations. Analysis revealed five themes: Anxiety due to lack of experience, Improved clinical reasoning, Real world practice, How to communicate effectively, and Application to clinical practice. The use of telehealth helped overcome barriers to implementing collaborative simulations and provided students with experiential learning that addressed essential competencies for safe and effective professional nursing practice. •Simulating the multiple demands of clinical practice can improve confidence.•Simulation is a safe environment to practice communication and collaboration.•Telehealth-enhanced simulations provide exposure to the informatics competency.•Students applied lessons from the simulations to improve their clinical practice.