Doctor of Nursing Practice Program

• Committee Chair Name & Credentials:
  Misty Evans, DNP, APRN, CPNP-AC, BMTCN
 

 

DNP Project Abstract

Simulation Participation in Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Nurse Practitioners

Purpose
Increase nurse practitioner (NP) simulation participation in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU) from 0% to 50% over the course of 4 months.

Methods
NPs were encouraged to attend simulations between 9/2022 and 12/2022 in the PCICU at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Participants completed pre- and post-participation surveys. As simulation is open to both NPs and fellows, data was obtained from both populations. Data on participation, past experiences, and perceptions were obtained from survey results.

Results
The pre-simulation survey was completed by 26 individuals while the post-simulation was completed by 23, with 3 lost to follow up. Eight fellows and 9 NPs participated in simulations. There was an 87% increase in comfort levels among both NPs and fellows following participation in simulation. The difference between the pre-simulation comfort level of NPs and Fellows was +0.69 (6.68 on the pre-survey compared to 7.37 on the post-survey).

Implications for Practice
The increase in comfort levels among NPs and fellows corroborates the benefit of simulation as a training tool for providers in the PCICU. Moving forward, simulation should be utilized in practice and its use can be further expanded to meet the needs of other health care team members.