Situational Awareness in Acute Patient Deterioration: Identifying Student Time to Task

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Prelicensure nursing students lack the situational awareness to promote timely intervention with a patient in septic shock. This study evaluated a multifaceted educational project that determined the impact on nursing students' knowledge retention and time to task (TTT).

METHODS: A quasi-experimental, repeated-measures design was used to evaluate students' knowledge retention and TTT. Eighty-four prelicensure nursing students participated in groups of 4 students to participate in a high-fidelity simulation.

RESULTS: Results show knowledge retention was significant between the pretest scores and 2 repeated assessment scores. The repeated-measures analysis of variance time effect P value was .02. The overall TTT group response suggested most (64/84, 76%) students responded within 5 minutes of patient deterioration.

CONCLUSIONS: A multifaceted approach was effective to influence knowledge of septic shock over time and demonstrate students' ability to intervene with a septic shock patient in a timely manner.