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Introduction: Increased demands on new and more diverse skills are changing the roles and responsibilities in the health and welfare professions, and personnel are expected to perform professionally in a variety of domains and apply new knowledge (Falck-Eriksen et al., 2019; Leonardsen et al., 2018). This creates new challenges for the curriculum and pedagogical methods in health and welfare studies. To meet the demands of applied theoretical knowledge and prepare students for their future role as professional, the use of simulation-based education (SBE) has become an important part of institutions that provide academic majors in health and welfare studies. Increasing skills can have a potentially reciprocal relation to the development of self-efficacy (Gloudemans et al, 2013; Bandura 1997), and that awareness of one’s own physiological and emotional states can promote self-efficacy and adaptation ability (van Dinther et al, 2011; Bandura, 1995).
Description: In this descriptive study, we investigated the impact of SBE on development of self-efficacy and on changes in physiological and emotional states. The students represented four different academic major programs in health and welfare (nurse, social educator, child-welfare, work educator) and at different educational level (bachelor, master, post-graduate). Simulation scenarios in the study included a variety of domains adapted to the students’ learning outcomes, e.g. vital signs in circulation, respiration and elimination, pre-operative communication, post-operative situations, mobilization, conflict control communication, sepsis, execution of child welfare, advanced assessment competence and supported employment. To measure students emotional states, a self-assessment manikin (SAM) both initial and after simulation performance was implemented (Bradley & Lang, 1994). In addition, measuring situational self-efficacy before and after the simulation, two items were constructed with a modification. Before simulation, participants were asked ‘How well do you think you will be able to do on the task?’ followed by ‘How confident are you about this?’ After simulation, participants were asked, ‘How well do you think you did on the task?’ followed by ‘How confident are you about this?’
Discussion: Preliminary results show that the effect of simulation on self-efficacy could be influenced by physiological and emotional states and that there are both similarities and differences across the students groups at different studies and educational level. These findings improve our understanding of the effects of SBE on students’ self-perceived skills and the emotional states. The findings influence our thinking of the students’ learning processes and have an impact on how to design future educational methods and assessments.
References
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