A Pilot Study to Investigate the Effect of a Simulation Strategy on the Clinical Decision Making of Midwifery Students

Abstract

The actual effect of the use of simulations on clinical decision making is inconclusive. This pilot study used a posttest design to determine the effect of a simulation strategy on the clinical decision-making process of midwifery students. Thirty-six graduate diploma students volunteered and were randomly assigned to two groups, with the experimental group receiving two simulation sessions (normal labor and physiological jaundice), and the control group receiving the two usual lectures. The main findings were that students who received the simulation strategy collected more clinical information, revisited collected clinical information less, made fewer formative inferences, reported higher confidence levels, and for the posttest normal labor simulation, reached a final decision more quickly. Such effects are reasonable for this type of intervention with the existent variability in each group. Further research with a larger sample size and more rigorous data collection strategies is required.

Perspectives on Teaching Approaches and the Grade Point Average Attainment of Undergraduate Medical Students at University of Zambia

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Critical thinking in midwifery practice: A conceptual model

“…Four studies analysed the effect of simulation on critical thinking development (Cioffi et al, 2005;Scholes et al, 2012;Lendahls and Oscarsson, 2017;Amod and Brysiewicz, 2017). Contradictory results were found between the studies, with three reporting an increase in critical thinking following the intervention (Cioffi et al, 2005;Lendahls and Oscarsson, 2017;Amod and Brysiewicz, 2017) and one study finding poor application of critical thinking to the simulation scenarios (Scholes et al, 2012). These results may reflect differences in how students were prepared for the activity, complexities of the simulation, and how critical thinking was measured.…”

The Use of Simulation in the Development of Individual Cognitive Expertise in Emergency Medicine

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