Tele-health in postgraduate nursing education: Simulating primary health care contexts

25^th World Nursing and Nurse Practitioner Conference

October 22-23, 2018 Osaka, Japan

Melissa Robinson-Reilly, Pauletta Irwin, Rosanne Coutts and Martin Gadd

University of Newcastle, Australia
Southern Cross University, Australia

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

In 2011, Tele-health services in Australia transformed as the Australian Government introduced initiatives to encourage the wider rural health services to improve patient access. Tele-health as an assessment and intervention modality has limitless applications. It is essential, nurses be introduced to modalities advancing contemporary platforms. The opportunity to experience tele-health via simulation, within a nursing-based Masterâ??s degree residential was introduced at the University of Newcastle. In particular, students within the nurse practitioner master programs continue the accumulation of additional knowledge and skills necessary to function safely and effectively as nurse practitioners. The postgraduate course, biophysical processes and health assessment, has a residential workshop that offers students learning in advanced health assessment, to differentiate between normal trajectories of common health problems and comprehensive clinical assessment. This motivates enhanced learning, encourages engagement, through problem based and solution focused learning framework. The Simulation Learning Environment (SLE) enables the students to engage in a realistic clinical situation, delivered via a tele-health simulation, piloted in 2016. Successful facilitation of a tele-health simulation required careful consideration in the nursing specialties of the 30 students to ensure all would walk away from the experience with a deeper insight. Four scenarios were developed collaboratively with Southern Cross University and the students were divided into groups and given one aspect of the health assessment to explore. In a â??tag-teamâ?? approach, students observed their peers and collaboratively gained information from the patient via the tele-health portal, with debriefing of the scenarios, to develop future workshops. Student feedback as follows: Good lesson learnt regarding communication and team work and took me out of my comfort zone. Clearly, telehealth simulation is in its initial stages as an education learning tool. The positive results of this pilot study indicate tele-health simulation warrants further investigation as utilization in the wider curriculum is foreseeable.

Biography :

Melissa Robinson-Reilly is an endorsed Nurse Practitioner having a nursing career that spans over 35 years. She has completed her PhD in 2014, awarded Doctor of Philosophy, having researched the lived experience of venous access in cancer patients. In her role as Program Convener for the Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner), School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, Australia, has led her to participate in a collaborative research study with Southern Cross University, exploring the tele-health simulation experience of postgraduate nursing students. She is also the NSW Chapter Chair of the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners.

E-mail: melissa.robinson-reilly@newcastle.edu.au