(48) Saving Maternal Lives through Pre-simulation Preparation Focused on Interruption Management and High-risk Content

Introduction: Preparing nurses for the complexity of practice is especially important in high mortality specialties like Maternal care. When maternal nurses feel overwhelmed, they are not able to focus on critical patient care, which can increase error risk. Knowle’s Adult Learning Theory emphasizes that adults learn best by combining prior knowledge with experiences. Yet, while future maternal nurses need to safely manage being interrupted to provide optimal care, adequate pre-simulation preparation is often overlooked.

Methods: During this presentation, conference attendees will be introduced to key concepts and provided results from our between-subjects study that involved block randomization of pre-licensure nursing students (n=206) to determine the impact of pre-simulation training bundles. Varying in complexity, these bundles were designed to facilitate knowledge of interruption management and pre-eclampsia to promote problem-solving during a high-fidelity simulation.


Results: ANCOVA and Non-Parametric analysis demonstrated a significant difference between groups, with those completing the full pre-simulation bundle implementing necessary interventions at the highest rate. While their perceived cognitive load (via NASA-TLX) was the highest, they simultaneously rated the simulation experience the most favorably.


Discussion: Pre-simulation learning is imperative to facilitating safe transition to practice. Providing content, interruption management, and exercises designed to refresh knowledge prior to the scenario resulted in greater accomplishment of learning objectives. Despite higher perceived cognitive load, those receiving the full bundle reported the highest favorability of the SBE.

Conclusion: This poster will highlight the principles for designing optimal pre-simulation preparation, and practice applying the information to simulation design.