Students' Experiences of Learning Therapeutic Communication in Virtual Patient Simulation
Date
2018-12-21
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Abstract
Turk Talk is a real-time chat session embedded in a virtual patient simulation. Turk Talk requires students to use therapeutic communication skills to formulate their responses to virtual patients. These virtual patient scenarios are a hybrid approach to facilitate undergraduate nursing students’ development of therapeutic communication. This thesis reports a thematic analysis that is part of a broader evaluation of Turk Talk. The study is grounded in key tenets of critical realism, social constructivism, socio-materialism, and student-centered learning theory. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ experiences of learning therapeutic communication using Turk Talk in a fourth-year undergraduate mental health and addictions nursing course. Three themes emerged: (a) Communication as Performance; (b) Communication as Discovery; and, (c) Communication as Cultivating Practice. Turk Talk requires students to use therapeutic communication skills to formulate their responses to virtual patients. The findings from this study complement and extend the current research related to virtual patient simulation to develop therapeutic communication skills in mental health and addictions nursing.
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Keywords
therapeutic communication, virtual patients, simulation, addictions, Turk Talk
Citation
Cullen, M. L. (2018). Students' Experiences of Learning Therapeutic Communication in Virtual Patient Simulation (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.