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

Background: 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. Purpose: 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. Methods: Focus group interviews were conducted with 27 final-semester baccalaureate nursing students after they had participated in two telehealth-enhanced simulations. Results: 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. Conclusion: 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.