Date of Award
Summer 2021
Document Type
Project – Manuscript
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Committee Chair
Kathy Williams
Abstract
Background The novice nurse takes time to show competency and confidence when implementing the new skills learned throughout their time in nursing school. With the increasing complexities of the healthcare system in the United States, it is necessary to ensure graduates are adequately prepared to handle critical situations. However, the ability of novice nurses to recognize critical changes in patients continues to be a hurdle that nursing faculty are attempting to address.
Objectives The objectives of this project were to explore the impact of an escape room simulation on student’s confidence and competence in recognizing critical changes in patients.
Design A mixed-method quasi-experimental was used with a one group pretest and posttest design.
Settings The setting was a private university in rural southeastern United States which offers a four-year Bachelor of Science Nursing Program.
Participants The participants were Baccalaureate junior nursing students (N=13) were recruited from a convenience sample.
Methods The project consisted of a pretest, an escape room simulation, and a posttest. The Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence with Clinical Decision Making (NASC-CDM©) scale was used with permission, Krista A. White PhD, RN, CCRN-K, CNE, to measure participants’ perception of their levels of self-confidence. An Escape Room Questionnaire was designed by the researcher to evaluate a number of variables, including student perceptions of competence with critical changes in patients, feelings during the escape room simulation, and student views about the most helpful aspects during the experience.
Results A descriptive statistics analysis indicated there was no statistically significant difference in participant’s mean confidence scores. However, there was a reported increase (77%) in competence scores after the implementation of the escape room simulation.
Conclusion The use of an escape room simulation to increase confidence was not statistically supported. However, there was an increase in self-reported competence.
Recommended Citation
Schmaldinst, Kristy, "The Impact of an Escape Room Simulation on Confidence and Competence in Nursing Student’s Identification of Critical Changes in Patients: A Mixed-Method Approach" (2021). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 13.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/nursing-dnp/13
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