Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
8-7-2025
First Advisor
Sandy King
Second Advisor
Beverly Clark
Abstract
The International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) endorses the inclusion of prebriefing as a Standard of Best Practice to enhance psychological safety, clarity, and engagement in simulation; without a structured approach, nursing students often experience anxiety, reduced confidence, and a lack of preparedness. At the project site, a university’s simulation learning lab, nursing lab instructors reported inconsistent prebriefing practices, leading to suboptimal simulation experiences. This Quality Improvement (QI) project aimed to evaluate the impact of implementing the INACSL prebriefing tool on nursing lab instructors’ perceptions of preparedness, confidence, and student performance. A quasi-experimental design was used over a four to five-week period, during which 10 nursing lab instructors received a 20-minute educational session on the structured prebriefing tool. The Facilitator Competency Rubric (FCR)-Prebriefing Construct survey was administered at three intervals: pre-education, post-education, and post-implementation. Findings revealed that mean scores increased from 3.4 to 4.1, indicating enhanced perceptions of preparedness, confidence, and student performance. Though the Friedman test did not yield statistically significant results (p=.092), qualitative feedback supported the effectiveness of the INACSL prebriefing tool, highlighting improvements in clarity, psychological safety, and consistency in simulation facilitation. This QI project advances nursing education by demonstrating that a standardized prebriefing tool strengthens instructional quality and supports improved student outcomes. The findings support wider adoption of the INACSL prebriefing tool and faculty development in fostering consistency and psychological safety in simulation-based education.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Smith-Samms, Avion, "Quality Improvement Project Nursing Lab Instructors’ Experiences Using a Structured Prebriefing Tool in Simulation Education" (2025). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 162.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/162
