Effectiveness of palliative care simulation in newly hired oncology nurses’ training

Objective The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of palliative care simulations with standardized patients in improving the knowledge, skill performance, and critical thinking of newly hired oncology nurses. Methods By convenience sampling, 59 newly hired oncology nurses in 2019 were enrolled as control group and 50 in 2020 as simulation group at a grade-A tertiary cancer hospital. Simulation group accepted theory (3 sessions) and simulation teaching includes three representative scenarios (6 sessions) in palliative care: pain management, special scenario communication, and turn over. Control group accepted traditional theory and skill teaching (9 sessions). Then both groups underwent four weeks clinical practice. The knowledge score was assessed by knowledge questionnaires, skill performance by standardized clinical evaluations, and critical thinking by the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory in both groups before and after intervention. The satisfaction of two groups was assessed by the learning satisfaction scale. Analysis of variance was conducted among the two groups by SPSS20.0. A difference was considered significant when P ​< ​0.05. Results After intervention, the simulation group was significantly greater in knowledge of pain management (t ​= ​−7.560, P ​< ​0.001), and knowledge of special scenario communication (Z ​= ​5.031, P ​< ​0.001), as well as the skill score of turnover (Z ​= ​2.808, P ​= ​0.005) than the control group. The critical-thinking score was also significantly greater in the simulation group (Z ​= ​6.229, P ​< ​0.001). The simulation group had higher satisfaction (Z ​= ​5.144，P ​< ​0.001). Conclusions Palliative care simulation with standardized patients can improve newly hired oncology nurses’ knowledge, skill performance, and critical thinking and satisfaction of teaching. It would be an effective strategy to train newly hired oncology nurses.