Development of a Mental Health Nursing Simulation: Challenges and Solutions

Nursing education programs are proliferating rapidly in the United States in an effort to meet demand for nurse professionals. Multiple challenges arise from this rapid expansion. One challenge is finding sufficient clinical sites to accommodate students. Increased competition for scarce resources requires creativity in clinical contracting. This paper examines the challenges associated with providing virtual clinical--experiences and environments rich in diversity and exposure, yet safe for experimentation and learning of mental health nursing students. Many nursing educators face challenges finding practice settings that support and reinforce theoretical content. Our program is a baccalaureate-nursing program, in which over 500 undergraduates are enrolled. Finding appropriate placements for this volume of students can be challenging. In our BSN mental health-nursing course, for example, one group of students was assigned to a chemical dependency residential treatment program. These students gained the advantage of learning in depth about addictions and stable mental health disorders concepts, as well as participating in model interdisciplinary treatment teams and therapy groups. However, these students had no opportunity for interaction with acutely mentally ill clients. Thus, althoug