SCNESA Blog-Beyond the Bedside: Using Interprofessional Simulation to Prepare Nursing Students for Collaborative Practice

Thank you to Dr. Ashley Bukay, DNP, MSN-Ed, RN & Katie Couture, MSN-Ed, RN, CHSE, for taking the time to write and share this with SCNESA

Nursing students spend countless hours learning how to assess patients, administer medications, recognize clinical deterioration, and respond to emergencies. Yet excellent nursing care requires more than strong clinical skills. Nurses must also know when they need another professional, whom to call, and how to collaborate effectively with that individual to meet the needs of the patient and family.

Interprofessional education (IPE) provides an opportunity to develop those skills before students enter professional practice. Simulation can be particularly valuable because it allows students to experience interprofessional collaboration in a structured learning environment rather than simply hearing about the roles of other healthcare professionals in the classroom. A simulation project conducted within The Citadel's nursing program offered senior BSN students an opportunity to do exactly that—through collaboration with an interprofessional resource students may not immediately think to call: the chaplain.

Bringing Interprofessional Education Into the Simulation Lab

The project originated from a desire to increase students' awareness of resources available to patients beyond the traditional nursing and medical roles they routinely encounter. Although nursing students regularly practice clinical skills, medication administration, assessment, and other nursing interventions in simulation and clinical environments, exposure to additional healthcare resources may be less consistent. The project therefore asked: What are the effects of utilizing chaplaincy resources in the simulation setting for senior nursing students? Chaplain Utilization in Nursing…

Nursing faculty collaborated with campus chaplains to develop a simulation experience designed around interprofessional practice. Fifteen senior BSN students and two campus chaplains participated in the experience, which incorporated prebriefing, simulation, debriefing, and a post-simulation survey (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024). The simulation consisted of two connected parts. During the first portion, small groups of students encountered a patient experiencing cardiac arrest. Students performed focused respiratory and cardiovascular assessments, recognized ventricular fibrillation, and implemented basic life support interventions (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024).

But the scenario did not end when the clinical emergency was over. That transition was intentional.

Moving From Clinical Care to Whole-Person Care

The second portion of the simulation introduced a chaplain consultation following the stressful patient encounter. Students were expected to define the chaplain's role, identify the benefits of consultation, appropriately utilize the chaplain during a stressful situation, and communicate with another member of the healthcare team in a timely, organized, and patient-specific manner. (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024). This shift allowed the simulation to move beyond management of a cardiac rhythm and toward the broader needs that accompany illness, crisis, grief, and uncertainty.

Students explored how chaplains can provide support during crisis, emotional distress or loneliness, surgery, a new diagnosis or prognosis, grief or spiritual need, and advanced-directive planning (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024). Importantly, the experience also challenged the assumption that chaplain services are relevant only when a patient identifies as religious. That distinction became evident in student feedback. A student explained that the experience helped them recognize the chaplain as a valuable resource for patients and families coping with difficult health or life circumstances. Another specific learning noted is that nonreligious patients can also utilize chaplain services. Students additionally described chaplains as members of the team who can contribute to patient-centered care (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024).

In other words, the students were not simply learning what a chaplain does. They were beginning to understand when and why another professional's expertise should become part of the patient's care. That is at the heart of meaningful IPE.

What Did the Students Take Away?

Following the simulation, participants completed an anonymous survey containing Likert-scale, open-ended, and multiple-choice questions. Responses were analyzed using Colaizzi's method, and three primary themes emerged: Chaplain Role, Holistic, and Simulation Feedback. (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024). Within those themes, students repeatedly identified concepts such as support, advocacy, coping, communication, therapeutic care, and the chaplain's role as a resource for patients, families, and healthcare professionals. (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024).

The experience also appeared to influence how students conceptualized advocacy. One participant described the importance of advocating not only for a patient's physical needs but also for resources that address mental health needs. Another reflected that the simulation demonstrated the importance of knowing what resources are available and advocating for patients to receive them. The quantitative feedback was similarly encouraging: 80% of participating students rated the simulation a 5 out of 5 for aiding their knowledge of chaplain resources. (INACSL Presentation the Citadel, 2024). Perhaps most meaningful were the words students used to describe the experience: informative, refreshing, new, empowering, beneficial, supportive and even a confidence booster.

Simulation Creates a Place to Practice Collaboration

One of the strengths of IPE simulation is that collaboration becomes something students do, rather than something educators simply tell them is important.

Literature informing the project included work examining interprofessional learning and simulation in undergraduate nursing education, integration of spiritual care into interprofessional simulation, nursing and medical students' perceptions of simulation-based IPE, and simulation experiences involving nursing students and pastoral or divinity professionals.

The project was also designed using INACSL simulation standards, including standards addressing simulation design, debriefing, and simulation-enhanced interprofessional education. Following the scenario, the PEARLS debriefing approach incorporated learner self-assessment, facilitated focused discussion, and directive feedback or teaching.

This combination is important. The learning did not occur solely because a chaplain was physically present in the simulation. Students had an opportunity to interact with the chaplain, reflect on that interaction, reconsider previous assumptions, and connect the experience with their future nursing practice.

Lessons Learned for Nursing Educators

Like any simulation, the experience also identified opportunities for improvement.

Faculty found that larger student groups could limit students' comfort and willingness to participate in conversations. Future recommendations included reducing group size from four students to two and providing the chaplain with an SBAR before entering the patient room, so that the chaplain and nursing students would enter the interaction with similar patient information. The project also identified the need to establish clearer expectations for student participation and acknowledged the difficulty of representing nonverbal patient cues when using a simulator. Chaplain Utilization in Nursing…

Preparing Nurses to See the Whole Team and the Whole Patient

Healthcare is inherently interprofessional, but students may graduate having had very different levels of meaningful interaction with professionals outside nursing and medicine.

Simulation gives educators an opportunity to change that. This project began with chaplain utilization, but its implications extend much further. IPE simulation can introduce students to the expertise of pharmacists, respiratory therapists, physical and occupational therapists, social workers, dietitians, chaplains, and many other professionals whose contributions are essential to comprehensive patient care.

The goal is not for nursing students to become experts in every discipline. Instead, we can prepare them to recognize the limits of their own role, understand the expertise available around them, communicate effectively across professional boundaries, and advocate for the right resource at the right time. Sometimes the most important lesson in a nursing simulation is not “What should I do next?” It is “Who else does my patient need?”

References

Granheim, B. M., Shaw, J. M., & Mansah, M. (2018). The use of interprofessional learning and simulation in undergraduate nursing programs to address interprofessional communication and collaboration: An integrative review of the literature. Nurse Education Today, 62, 118–127. Chaplain Utilization in Nursing…

Huehn, S. L., Kuehn, M. B., & Fick, K. E. (2019). Integrating spiritual care during interprofessional simulation for baccalaureate nursing students. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 37(1), 94–99. Chaplain Utilization in Nursing…

INACSL Standards Committee, Decker, S., Alinier, G., Crawford, S. B., Gordon, R. M., Jenkins, D., & Wilson, C. (2021). Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™: The debriefing process. Clinical Simulation in Nursing. INACSL Presentation The Citadel…

INACSL Standards Committee, Rossler, K., Molloy, M., Pastva, A., Brown, M., & Xavier, N. (2021). Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™: Simulation-enhanced interprofessional education. Clinical Simulation in Nursing. INACSL Presentation The Citadel…

Joyce, L. K., L'Ecuyer, K. M., & Rubbelke, C. S. (2023). Introducing nursing students to pastoral care providers via simulation. Journal of Christian Nursing, 40(1), 48–53. Chaplain Utilization in Nursing…

Stewart, L. S., Stringer, T. H., VanRegenmorter, J., Miller, S., Alexander, E. H., & Phillippi, J. C. (2019). Interprofessional simulation for nursing and divinity students: Learning beyond checklists. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 35, 10–16.