Sudden Cardiac Death and Nursing Education: The Students’ Perception of the Role of Simulation.

BACKGROUND: Simulation is a teaching method largely used to facilitate learning of BlsD (Basic Life Support) techniques. This study investigates real life experiences of undergraduate nursing students related to sudden cardiac death including events occurring during their practicum. The study explores students’ perception of the value simulation as a teaching method to respond to sudden cardiac death. Furthermore it explores the potential of two methods of teaching BlsD techniques in order to facilitate retention of knowledge and limit resource consumption. METHODS: A sample (N=33) of nursing students was randomly selected for this prospective observational study. RESULTS: 99 questionnaires were collected, 55 related Low-Fidelity and 54 related to Moderate-Fidelity simulation teaching. Early evaluation demonstrated an increase of knowledge in each group. Post-test 2 showed that there are no significant differences between the two groups in terms of knowledge retention. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the limit of small sample size, the study showed that the two teaching methods are equally effective in acquisition and retention of information on BlsD techniques. However, the low-fidelity method was more efficient and less resource intensive.