WATERBURY, CT (December 1, 2023) – Sentinel U®, a provider of healthcare simulations and learning innovations for nursing schools, hospital systems and healthcare professionals, today announced it has selected three projects for its Sentinel U Nursing Simulation Research Grant (SUNSRG) program. This will be the third round of grant awards since the program began in 2021.
“We were once again impressed by the strength and caliber of the SUNSRG submissions,” said Laura Gonzalez, Ph.D., APRN, CNE, CHSE-A, ANEF, FAAN, vice president of healthcare innovation at Sentinel U. “I look forward to mentoring and working with these talented and tenacious nurse educators as they study the impact of virtual simulation technology in our field. I am confident their findings will contribute to the overall body of nursing education science.”
The grants will allow investigators to utilize the company’s cutting-edge virtual simulation products to conduct valuable research in nursing education:
Rhode Island Nurse Education Center, Rhode Island – Bonnie Rayta, staff director at the center will focus on if healthcare simulations offer learners a flexible learning environment. She will look to determine if students will take advantage of open VR labs, if those open labs will support students learning, and what the motivating factors were for students to participate in the VR labs.
St. Joseph Hospital, Nashua New Hampshire – Diane Gooden, MSN, RN, Lead Clinical Nurse Educator, is looking to determine if virtual simulation can increase confidence in New Graduate Nurses (NGN). The specific question that she is looking to determine is whether in a New Graduate Nurse Residency program in the community hospital setting, does instruction by virtual simulation compared to instruction by lecture/didactic style help increase confidence levels in the first year of nursing practice?
Texas Woman’s University, Texas – Laura Kubin, PhD, RN, CNE, CPN, CHES, professor at Texas Woman’s University – Dallas, will lead a study to determine the effect of virtual simulation clinical encounters on preparing advanced practice registered nursing students for clinical placement. Questions to be explored include, if students perceive virtual encounters as authentic, how virtual simulations impact decision-making and diagnostic reasoning skills in APRN students, and do virtual simulations prepare APRN students for clinical placement as evidenced by meeting NONPF core competencies.
Each SUNSRG grant recipient will receive in-kind Sentinel U products and robust support resources throughout the duration of the project. Studies will begin January 2024, with researchers providing initial findings later in the year.
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