The use of simulation as a learning approach to non-technical skills awareness in final year student nurses

Understanding what non-technical skills are and their relevance for healthcare practitioners has become a new area of exploration. Although recent literature has highlighted the necessity of introducing non-technical skills training and assessment within medical education, nursing education has still to fully embrace this skills training. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of simulated practice as a learning approach to demonstrate and assess non-technical skills for final year nursing students. An established ward simulation exercise was refocused to incorporate opportunities for these nursing students to be assessed on their ability to demonstrate application of non-technical skills. Opinions on whether this was a successful strategy were sought from the students by means of module evaluation questionnaires. Analysis of this data revealed that the majority of the students agreed that it was an effective learning approach, allowing them to demonstrate their non-technical skills, be assessed and subsequently identify further learning needs.