Abstract

Background: Associate degree nursing students (ADNS) have limited exposure to persons experiencing the full range of alterations in cognition of psychiatric illness during their psychiatric mental health nursing rotation.
Objective: This qualitative study examines the experience reported by second semester ADNS after completing an auditory hallucinations simulation in the nursing skills and simulation lab at a community college in the mid-Atlantic.
Design: The study was reviewed and approved by the college Institutional Review Board. Guided by Grounded Theory, investigators analyzed the data from written reflective debriefing reports of the simulation in which students, working in pairs, one as the patient wearing headphones while listening to a streaming of auditory hallucinations, and the other as the nurse conducting a psychiatric nursing assessment of the patient. Students consented to have their written reports included in the study. Responses were reviewed for conceptual and thematic content using the constant comparative analysis method of Corbin and Strauss.
Results: Concepts identified included fear, distraction, frustration, empathy, patience, and understanding. Themes included attitude changes from skepticism about auditory hallucinations to acceptance of symptoms, therapeutic use of self, and keeping patient safe.
Conclusions: The auditory hallucinations assignment gives nursing students the opportunity to learn from a brief simulation experience about psychotic symptoms and assists in attaining knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) necessary for planning and providing care to patients with serious mental illness.