Effectiveness of a Role-Modeling Intervention on Student Nurse Simulation Competency

Novice nurses are often inadequately prepared to respond to complex, patient care situations where patients' conditions deteriorate. Exposure to a video-taped intervention that role-models and reinforces expected behavior of an expert nurse before participation in a simulation may improve student nurse performance in a cost-effective manner. The primary purpose of this quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test study was to assess the preliminary effectiveness of a theory based role-modeling intervention on enhancing student nurse competency in responding to a simulated response to rescue event. Performance was measured by a previously validated Heart Failure Simulation Competency Evaluation Tool © (HFSCET). Total mean scores on the HFSCET for the pre-test (59.08) and post-test (87.08) were significantly different (p = .000); students performed better on the post-test after exposure to the role-modeling intervention. A power analysis indicated a large effect size (effect size = .926; alpha = 0.50; power = 0.991). Students who had a greater number of days between the intervention and the post-test had a lower score. This innovative intervention based on established learning theory may change the way educators prepare novice students to achieve expected clinical competencies in graded simulation performance assessments.