Simulated Clinical Experience: An Investigation of Emotion Understanding and Management

• Main Author: Jones, Neena White
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: educational technology; emotional intelligence; emotion management; emotion understanding; nursing education; simulation; Instructional Media Design; Nursing; Public Health Education and Promotion
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7481; https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8753&context=dissertations

Many investigators have documented that lack of emotional intelligence (EI) in professional nursing correlates with patient dissatisfaction, negative patient outcomes, and litigation. However, much less information is available to nurse educators for an effective instructional strategy to increase EI skills, specifically emotion understanding and management (the most influential branches of EI) in nursing students. Grounded in the theory of EI and the theory of simulation, the purpose of this quantitative quasi experimental study was to introduce educational technology as a useful strategy for influencing EI in a convenience sample of 88 second semester students in a baccalaureate program. Research questions for the study examined the treatment (human patient simulators, stressful situational scenarios, and role playing) for changing EI skill levels. Repeated measures, within factors analysis of variance was used to test for a relationship between the variables at three time periods during a semester. Key results for emotion understanding were significant with small effect, F(1.973, 171.686) = 7.526, p = .001, partial ω2 = .047. Key findings for emotion management were significant with medium effect, F(1.827, 158.965) = 9.981, p < .0005, ω2 = .063. However, conclusions were mixed for influence, as the instructional strategy resulted in negative EI learning (consistent decreased gain) for most participants. By weeding out irrelevancies, this study contributes to current nursing research and informs nursing educators of the need to continue the search for an effective strategy for teaching emotion understanding and management skills in nursing curricula.