Using Simulation to Establish and Evaluate Advanced Practice Nurse Competency

Establishing and evaluating competency for advanced practice nursing (APN) students is a challenge facing educators, regulators and consumers of health care. The purpose of this presentaton is to determine the effectiveness of high fidelity patient simulation on establishing APN student competence in assessing and managing complex cases and their ability to deonstrate leadership, delegation, communication, and professionalism. Students were videotaped in the high fidelity simulation laboratory at periodic intervals, and reviewed by independent reviewers who evaluated the students using a valid and reliable evaluation tool. Results showed statistically significant improvement in all categories of evaluation following increased exposure to simulation of complex cases. Competence of the APN student increased at assessing and managing complex patients, use of evidenced-based guidelines, patient safety, leadership, prioritization, delegation, collaboration, communication and professionalism.