High-Fidelity Simulation to Teach Accountability to Prelicensure Nursing Students

•Accountability is required of professional nurses.•There is a lack of teaching strategies to prepare graduate nurses with accountability skills.•High-fidelity simulation is used to teach prelicensure nursing students various skills.•High-fidelity simulation may provide nurse educators with a strategy to teach accountability practices.

BackgroundAccountability is a skill required of professional nurses. Little research has been done over the last 15 years discussing how to educate prelicensure nursing students in developing the skill of accountability.MethodA qualitative, interpretive description study evaluated prelicensure nursing students to identify how they felt high-fidelity simulation assisted them in developing accountability skills.ResultsFive themes emerged from the data analysis and included (a) being aware of nursing actions, (b) practice and repetition of skills, (c) communication with peers and patients, (d) performing to the best of ability, and (e) errors and omissions.ConclusionThis study indicated that high-fidelity simulation may be a method of teaching prelicensure nursing students how to become accountable nurses.