The Effectiveness of Situation Awareness Approach on Nursing Competencies in Obstetric Practicum: A Multimodal Teaching

The declining birth rate and the complex and unpredictable nature of obstetric clinical situations have limited nursing students' opportunities to gain authentic clinical experience and increased the challenges and stress associated with obstetric practicum. Therefore, undergraduate nursing students preparing for obstetric clinical practice require adequate pre-clinical preparation to develop essential competencies in situation awareness, communication, clinical reasoning, and decision-making. However, traditional teaching approaches may not adequately replicate authentic obstetric situations or provide sufficient opportunities for students to integrate knowledge and respond appropriately to dynamic clinical conditions.

This study aims to develop a Situation Awareness-Based Multimodal Instructional (SAMI) program for undergraduate nursing students. The program integrates situation awareness theory, multimodal learning, virtual simulation, and game-based learning, incorporating visual, auditory, tactile, movement, and spatial experiences to create immersive and context-based obstetric learning environments. The SAMI program is designed to prepare nursing students for clinical practice by enhancing their ability to recognize relevant clinical cues, understand patient conditions, anticipate potential changes, and make appropriate clinical judgments and decisions.

First, the feasibility, usability, and learner experiences of the SAMI program will be examined. Approximately 28 undergraduate nursing students who initail their obstetric clinical practicum will be recruited. They are allocated into 4 groups and randomly be assigned experimental groups or control groups. The experimental group will received SAMI program teaching; while control group will receive usual teaching. Subsequently, to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, undergraduate nursing students across different educational institutions will be cruited during their obstetric practicum. The research outcomes will include situation awareness, obstetric communication, clinical reasoning, and confidence in clinical decision-making. Finally, this study will examine a model including educational background, obstetric practicum stress, situation awareness, and core competencies in maternal nursing care. We plan to recruite 300 nursing students to test the model.

Ultimately, this study aims to establish an evidence-based, context-based, and multimodal pre-clinical preparation model that bridges the gap between classroom learning and obstetric clinical practice. The findings will provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the SAMI program in enhancing nursing students' clinical readiness and core competencies for obstetric practicum.