Virtual patients: development in cancer nursing education.
BACKGROUND
The number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer is increasing and internationally there are high incidence rates. It is important that nurses and healthcare professionals are enabled to provide appropriate care to those men affected by prostate cancer and their families. Despite this need, there is recognition that many professionals feel ill prepared and lack knowledge in a number of areas. This paper presents the development of a Virtual Patient (VP) online resource to support practitioner learning.


OBJECTIVE
To develop five online VP simulation scenarios to meet the learning needs of nurses and health-care professionals caring for men with prostate cancer.


METHODS
Topic areas for the VPs were taken from previous work exploring the needs of health care professionals working with men with prostate cancer. An initial scoping exercise involving nursing practitioners, students and a prostate cancer charity confirmed the focus of the case study scenarios. Service users and specialist practitioners reviewed an outline of each case study to ensure fidelity of the simulations scenarios. Cases were entered into UChoose, a web based interactive VP player and authoring tool. The final case studies were reviewed by a sample of both registered and non-registered nurses and nursing students.


RESULTS
The majority of respondents reported an increase in knowledge and suggested that they would recommend the resource to others. A number of positive aspects of the resource were highlighted. Respondents also commented about areas of weakness, a number of which have been addressed subsequently.


CONCLUSIONS
The VP case studies provided an opportunity to develop knowledge and confidence in caring for men with prostate cancer. The mode of delivery and the content was acceptable for less experienced and knowledgeable staff.
University of the West of England, Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD, United Kingdom. Electronic address: pam.moule@uwe.ac.uk.
Pam
P
Moule
University of the West of England, Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD, United Kingdom.
Katherine
K
Pollard
University of the West of England, Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD, United Kingdom.
Julie
J
Armoogum
University of the West of England, Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD, United Kingdom.
Simon
S
Messer
D004506:Education, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing*; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000379:methods*; D014584:User-Computer Interface
Nursing education; Online simulation; Prostate cancer; Virtual patient; Virtual simulation