Simulation as a learning method in public health nurse education.

Objective: To view simulation as a learning method in the light of learning theories and to describe the student's reflections and experiences of simulating anaphylaxis during vaccination.

Design And Sample: Public health nursing students at a university in Norway simulated scenarios related to anaphylaxis during vaccination of an infant. The aim of the intervention was to facilitate the competence of public health nurses to handle unforeseen events associated with vaccinations. The students wrote reflection notes about their experiences after the simulation. The reflection notes were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: The students experienced simulation as a realistic educational method with feelings of stress in an acute situation. They discovered the importance of cooperation and communication to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to serious failure in the treatment. The students emphasized that simulation gave them a preparation for practice to handle anaphylaxis associated with vaccines.

Conclusion: The public health nurse students experienced simulation as a realistic and effective educational method. Simulation made them reflect on the public health nurse's area of responsibility. Kolb's learning theory and Schön's theory of knowledge-in-action, may explain how simulation as a didactic method develops competence to act in a concrete situation of anaphylaxis by vaccination of children.