School of Nursing Poster Presentations

Integrating Social Determinants of Health in Health Care Education: Using Simulation Based Learning to Prepare Nurse Practitioner Students

Document Type

Poster

Keywords

simulation; clinical education; graduate nursing

Publication Date

4-2017

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Social determinants of Health (SDH) are conditions in which people are born, work, live, and age, and the policies, agendas, norms, and political systems that impact conditions of daily life. SDH should be an integral component of health professional education. Providers need the knowledge, skills, and motivations to address and act on these factors. The study purpose was to test the impact of a simulation intervention on improving Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP) and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) student knowledge and confidence of enacting SDH in their clinical practices.

Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used. Students participating in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) were assigned to the control or experimental group based on their OSCE itinerary. Before the OSCE, subjects read an article on SDH. At the simulation center, subjects completed a 3-item confidence and a 10-item knowledge pre-test, developed by the research team and assessed for content validity by three experts. The experimental group then received a SDH-centered simulation, while the control group received a non-SDH simulation. Both groups then completed the confidence and knowledge post-tests.

Results: Subjects (N = 118: Control n = 57, Experimental n = 61) were predominantly female (87%), age 20-50 (92%), Non-Hispanic/white (74%), and had practiced on average seven years. After the intervention, the control group statistically significantly improved on confidence (p = .03) but not on knowledge, while the experimental group improved on both (p = .02, p = .00),. For both groups, confidence was correlated with overall years in practice (r = .20, p = .05) and practice in a health professions shortage area (r = .21, p = .05).

Implications: SDH-centered simulation based learning is an effective way to increase students’ knowledge and confidence in using tenets of SDH in assessing, developing and implementing plans of care for patients. Further testing of the instruments is needed to establish validity and reliability before larger studies are conducted. Future research is needed to examine the sustained use of SDH after graduates enter practice.

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Creative Commons License
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Open Access

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To be presented at GW Annual Research Days 2017.

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Integrating Social Determinants of Health in Health Care Education: Using Simulation Based Learning to Prepare Nurse Practitioner Students

Background/Purpose: Social determinants of Health (SDH) are conditions in which people are born, work, live, and age, and the policies, agendas, norms, and political systems that impact conditions of daily life. SDH should be an integral component of health professional education. Providers need the knowledge, skills, and motivations to address and act on these factors. The study purpose was to test the impact of a simulation intervention on improving Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP) and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) student knowledge and confidence of enacting SDH in their clinical practices.

Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used. Students participating in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) were assigned to the control or experimental group based on their OSCE itinerary. Before the OSCE, subjects read an article on SDH. At the simulation center, subjects completed a 3-item confidence and a 10-item knowledge pre-test, developed by the research team and assessed for content validity by three experts. The experimental group then received a SDH-centered simulation, while the control group received a non-SDH simulation. Both groups then completed the confidence and knowledge post-tests.

Results: Subjects (N = 118: Control n = 57, Experimental n = 61) were predominantly female (87%), age 20-50 (92%), Non-Hispanic/white (74%), and had practiced on average seven years. After the intervention, the control group statistically significantly improved on confidence (p = .03) but not on knowledge, while the experimental group improved on both (p = .02, p = .00),. For both groups, confidence was correlated with overall years in practice (r = .20, p = .05) and practice in a health professions shortage area (r = .21, p = .05).

Implications: SDH-centered simulation based learning is an effective way to increase students’ knowledge and confidence in using tenets of SDH in assessing, developing and implementing plans of care for patients. Further testing of the instruments is needed to establish validity and reliability before larger studies are conducted. Future research is needed to examine the sustained use of SDH after graduates enter practice.