Supporting Paediatric Nursing Students in Developing Their Skills in Communicating with Children and Young People with Mental Health Difficulties

The Brief:

This case study will outline the implementation of a simulation-based workshop designed to support paediatric nursing students in developing and enhancing their confidence in communicating with children and young people with mental health difficulties. The study examines the impact of the workshop on participants’ ability to use effective communication skills, including active listening and asking questions on sensitive topics in addition to recognising the limitations of their own role and feeling confident in seeking support from other professions and specialities.

The Problem:

Communicating with children and young people with mental health conditions can feel daunting and anxiety-inducing for those who are not familiar with doing so. The nursing school identified the importance of student nurses being given the opportunity to practise these skills within a safe and supportive environment.

The Requirement:

The nursing school partnered with SimComm Academy to develop a simulation-based workshop, required to provide paediatric nursing students with the opportunity to learn and put into practice communication skills when managing children and young people with mental health difficulties.

The Outcome:

The simulation-based workshop consisted of forum theatre, fishbowl simulation and monologues delivered by actors. Participants were given the opportunity to interact with actor role players who were taking on the roles of nursing colleagues, young patients and their families. A communication framework called STEPS (Start, Time, Empathy, Provision of Support, Sense Check) was provided to assist participants in  preparing for and navigating challenging conversations. The simulated scenarios were then followed by structured debriefs facilitated by experts, drawing out identified themes and learning objectives.

Tangible Results:

Analysis of the evaluations demonstrate a clear shift in knowledge from before the workshop to after the workshop. This is shown in figure 1; before the workshop 36% of the participants expressed either limited, neutral, or no knowledge in at least one topic area, whereas following the workshop 98% of the participants expressed excellent or good knowledge in all topic areas.

Figure 1: Before and after breakdown of participants responses

A comprehensive breakdown of participants’ self-assessed learning outcomes before and after the workshop is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Full breakdown of participants’ responses

The evaluation also encourages the participants to note any qualitative comments they had on the workshop. Participants found the mode of delivery with interactive scenarios with actor role players and facilitated discussions an extremely useful method of learning as seen in the comments below (figure 3).

Figure 3: qualitative comments from participants

Conclusion:

The simulation-based workshop delivered to final year paediatric nursing students significantly aided them in developing their skills and confidence in communicating with children and young people with mental health concerns. A significant improvement in their confidence in their ability to recognise the limitations of their role and to signpost on to other professionals was also identified.