Learning Outcomes of Role-play at the Community Care Conference in Basic Education for Public Health Nurses

<p>〔Aims〕We aim to clarify what both students and teachers can learn through the experience of role-play, capture teachers’ evaluations of role-play, and generate suggestions for coordination skills.</p><p>〔Methods〕We examined the learning-records of 21 students and conducted semi-structured interviews of 4 teachers who played the role of non-nurse experts at the community care conference. We analyzed these qualitatively and descriptively.</p><p>〔Results〕Students practiced “steering skills to vitalize conversations.” They reviewed both the “process to refine a plan” and “behind-the scenes negotiation skills learned from failures.” They also deeply considered “what the ideal community care conference would be.” In order to improve their students’ education, instructors “created roles which reflect real conversations” and generated “feedback based on role-play scenes.” They captured “learning outcomes through immersive role-play” and used “elaborate teaching materials to advance skills”. In addition, the teachers found that “the learnings from this role-play were also meaningful for teachers.”</p><p>〔Conclusions〕The students experienced the challenges of the nursing profession through realistic role-play performed by teachers. This roleplay taught students that refining a plan is of fundamental importance. This suggests that the combination of preparing plan sheets for conferences and engaging in role-play is an effective learning tool for students to acquire skills for becoming public nurses.</p>