1. School of Health, Department of Acute Nursing and Health
Exploring nursing students’ assessment and decision-making
while in a Second Life clinical simulation laboratory
Background
A review of fitness for practice identified that decision making skills were poor in new graduates. New
methods of teaching skills were being explored by university – who have bought an island on
Second Life ®. Second Life is an Internet 3-D virtual world that is built and owned by its
residents (avatars).
Methodology and Method
• Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the student experience
• 65 3rd
year students invited to participate, 55 participated in the questionnaire.
• The Simulation - Students in groups of 3, assumed Avatars and accessed the clinical
simulation laboratory in Second Life gaining practice and experience in working through a
highly dependent patient scenario. The scenario ran for approximately 1 hour .
• A transcript of the student assessment and decision-making is generated at the end of the
scenario and presented in a Microsoft Word document
• After the simulation students were asked to complete a previously validated questionnaire
with 20 statements about Second Life, on a 5 point Likert Scale (Cobb et al 2009).
Analysis and Results
The table illustrates an analysis of the data generated by the students during the A&E
scenario in Second Life®.
Quantitative analysis of the questionnaire
• 36, 65% agreed that “I learned to move around quite quickly”
• 31, 56% agreed that “I understood what I needed to do very well”
• 34, 62% agreed that “I found it easy to move around the CSL”
• 38, 69% agreed that “I found it easy to use the apparatus “
• 30, 55% disagreed that “I found using SL quite difficult”
• 15, 27% were unsure that “I received sufficient feedback during the experiment” (10, 18%
agreed, 15, 27% disagreed)
• 33, 60% agreed that “Using SL enhanced my understanding of assessment and decision-
making”
• 18, 33% unsure, 17, 31% disagreed that “Using SL for skills practicals would increase my
attendance “
• 15, 27% agreed and 23, 42% unsure that “Doing the skills lab in SL made me better prepared
for the real thing such as hearing a patient vomiting or groaning in pain”
Future Plans
• To provide students with written transcript of the communication
• To explore more integration of the Heads Up Device (HUD) and the scenario
• Conduct scenario using Bots (programmed avatars)
© Copyright Glasgow Caledonian University
Aim of Study
To explore the use of Second Life to develop skills in nursing such as assessment and decision-making.
Patient scenario
You are on duty in Accident &
Emergency (A&E) when your
mentor tells you that a paramedic
crew have brought in a young
male who has been involved in a
Road Traffic Accident (RTA).You
are asked by your mentor to help
receive him into the Resuscitation
Room.
The information you are given is
that he is unconscious and has a
Glasgow Coma Score of 9. He is
breathing spontaneously and is
receiving Oxygen. He is very
restless and appears
disorientated. The paramedics
suspect he may have internal.
Injuries.
Your patient requires a full
assessment. Click, in order of
preference, what you need to do
first, using the information in the
drop down menu in Tab 1
(Assessment and Management)
PLEASE CONTACT
Theresa E Price, Senior Lecturer E: T.price@gcu.ac.uk
Jacqueline McCallum, Senior Lecturer E: Jacqueline.mccallum@gcu.ac.uk
Valerie Ness, Lecturer E: V.ness@gcu.ac.uk