This page contains information you need to be successful in the experiences we have designed for you in simulation. Read through this and the referenced documentation carefully. Depending on whether your simulation will be in the Experiential Learning Suite (BH 374) and/or the Standardized Patient Area (BH 118 & BH 120), there are helpful information available to you. If you will be using the Electronic Health Record (EHR), the instructions on how to use it in simulation are also available to you. Finally, a wide variety of documentation, videos, and video playlists have been created to help you prepare for simulation, clinical practicums, etc. Please do avail yourself of these resources.
We believe that everyone participating in activities at the San Francisco State University School of Nursing is intelligent, capable, cares about doing their best, and wants to improve.
The Center for Medical Simulation at Harvard University created the above Basic AssumptionTM for their simulation program. The Simulation Program faculty and staff at the School of Nursing adhere to this same assumption. We believe you are an intelligent and motivated person who wants to improve your knowledge and your skills. We ask that you, too, believe in us, that we want to do our very best to give you a valuable experience that will help you to develop into a quality healthcare professional.
We understand that mistakes will happen, but simulation is designed to be a safe place where mistakes are puzzles to be solved, not cause for blame or ridicule. As part of the safe environment, once you leave the simulation facility or the Zoom meeting, do not discuss the actions of your peers outside of that simulation. And please do not discuss simulation activities with your classmates who have not yet had the experience themselves. Sharing the details of simulations robs your peers of the opportunity to have the same learning experience that you had.
We do our best to create situations and environments that will give you as realistic an experience as possible given the constraints of time, money, and technology. We ask that you understand the limitations and agree to suspend your disbelief during the activities. Be in the moment, not in your expectations of what the moment should be.
Check with your clinical instructor as to your class is scheduled for simulation. Your instructor will have the date and time and where you are to report. If you are scheduled to participate in remote simulation via Zoom, your instructor will give you the date and time as well as the Zoom URL to the activity. Either in-house or remote, your instructor will provide you with any pre-activity documentation or assignments.
On the day of your in-house simulation activity, plan to arrive at the designated room 10-15 minutes before the scheduled time so you can get settled and meet your facilitator and the simulation staff. Come prepared for a clinical day. This means wear appropriate nursing attire and bring all the equipment you would normally take with you to a clinical site. If you are scheduled for a remote simulation, join the Zoom meeting a few minutes prior to your scheduled start time. When everyone has arrived, you will be let into the main room as a group. Wear appropriate nursing attire so you present yourself as a professional nurse.
For more information, please watch a brief video overview of our simulation process.
You will be asked to register your attendance using an on-line survey tool. To make that process easier, we provide a QR code that you can scan with your smartphone that will take you to the survey. That same survey is used at the end of the session to provide your feedback to us on your experience. When you register, you will receive an email with the survey link so you can give your evaluation of your experience later, after the end of the session. Please note that when registering, we collect personal information from you – your name, student ID number, and campus email address. When you select the post-experience evaluation path, we skip over the collection of personal identifiable information. Thus, your evaluation of the experience is as anonymous as possible given that we know who participated in that activity.
For more information, please watch a brief video on our data collection process.
To help you prepare for your remote simulation activity, we have created brief videos for each of the current simulations we run remotely.
As part of our efforts to provide students with information to prepare themselves for simulation and skills/clinical training, we have created and collected several sources of information.
If you are told to report to a room on the third floor of Burk Hall, you will most likely be spending some time in the Experiential Learning Suite (ELS). Read through this information and the referenced documentation carefully.
WHAT TO EXPECT
After everyone has arrived and has registered, you will be given an orientation to the room and to the human patient simulator. To help prepare you for that orientation, we provide information on the various equipment you will find in the room. Those resources are listed below in the section entitled Simulation Resources for Students. Please go through the resources that pertain to your simulation type - Pediatrics, Reproductive Health, etc. - to better prepare yourself for your time with us. If there are specific resources your instructor wishes you to review, they will provide those to you.
We use DocuCare in most activities involving the high-fidelity simulators (HPS). For a few HPS simulations we still have a hardcopy chart for you to use. Instructions on how to use DocuCare in simulation can be found in the section entitled Charting in Simulation Activities. This chart will be made available to you just before you enter the room for the patient encounter.
Prior to entering the simulation room, the objectives of the scenario will be read and a shift change report performed so everyone – participants and observers alike -- knows the situation at the start of the exercise.
Upon completion of the experience, you will return to the observation room where you will have what’s known as a debriefing with the facilitator. Debriefing is a post-experience analysis of the events and actions as they pertain to the objectives of the exercise. All participants and observers will be expected to take an active role in the debriefing.
So how will you know when to enter the room and when the experience is completed? We have a PA (Public Address) system that allows us to speak to you from outside the room. When it is time to enter, you will hear “Dr. Green” paged to the room. At the completion of the experience, we will page “Dr. Black” to the room. Dr. Black does not mean pivot on your heels and dash out of the room. Close out your patient’s room. Check for safety issues, say good-bye to your patient, and exit the room. Don’t worry about putting equipment back the way you found it; we have staff who will reset the room for the next activity.
If you have any questions, please email Simlab@sfsu.edu.
If you are told to report to either BH 118 or BH 120, you will most likely be spending some time in the Standardized Patient Area (SPA) on the first floor of Burk Hall. Read through this information and the referenced documentation carefully.
WHAT TO EXPECT
After everyone has arrived and has registered, you will be given overview of the case, how the activities will unfold, and what will be expected of you. A brief synopsis of the case and the objectives of the scenario will be provided to you – participants and observers alike – everyone knows the situation at the start of the exercise.
Prior to entering the simulation room, the facilitator will telephone the simulation room. This is to let the patient(s) know you will be arriving in two minutes time. During those two minutes, you will receive final instructions from the facilitator and will position yourselves outside the door of the room. A simulation staff person will signal you when it is time to knock on the door to the room. Please wait for either a response from the patient to enter or the patient comes to the door to invite you in.
Upon completion of the learning objectives, the facilitator will again telephone the room to signal the end of the encounter. Depending upon the type of simulation, you may be asked to step out into the hallway for a minute or two while the patient prepares their feedback for you. Or the patient(s) will simply come out of character and begin to speak to you about what it was like for them to be your patient. Then you will return to the observation room where you will have what’s known as a debriefing with the facilitator. Debriefing is a post-experience analysis of the events and actions as they pertain to the objectives of the exercise. All participants and observers will be expected to take an active role in the debriefing.
ACTIVITY SPECIFICS
All simulation activities come with a Student Information Guide that is maintained by the faculty for that nursing specialty area. Please speak to your instructor to obtain a copy of that guide and any other information or instructions they wish to provide you prior to your coming to simulation. If you have any questions, please email Simlab@sfsu.edu.