Lessons Learned: Providing Access Through Simulation
Abstract
JAPspjapJournal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association1078-39031532-5725SAGE PublicationsSage CA: Los Angeles, CA10.1177/107839031141935310.1177_1078390311419353EducationLessons LearnedProviding Access Through SimulationKaasMerrie J.11Merrie J. Kaas, DNSc, RN, CNS-BC, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USAMerrie J. Kaas, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 5-140 Weaver-Densford Hall, 308 Harvard Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA Email: kaasx002@umn.edu92011175359359© American Psychiatric Nurses Association 20112011American Psychiatric Nurses Associationcover-dateSeptember/October 2011Periodically, Dr. Stein, JAPNA editor, and I receive manuscripts that tell a story about some “lessons learned” through the development and evaluation of a unique educational program or method. This column will showcase one such unique teaching strategy, a simulation about suicide developed for undergraduate students in their psychiatric/mental health course. I am highlighting this story because it underscores some of the issues about simulated learning in psychiatric/mental health education that I have been discussing in this column over the past year: the need for clarity of purpose in using simulation supported by the evidence that simulation achieves specific learning outcomes, the need to identify the pedagogy driving the development of the simulation, understanding the costs of simulated learning, and using formative and/or summative evaluation to actually improve our teaching, not just to evaluate student learning.In the example by Hermanns, Lilly,