How Simulations Help CNA Students Learn Documentation
On September 29, 2022, CNA Simulations hosted a webinar on How Simulation Helps CNA Students Learn Documentation.
Throughout the hour-long webinar, CNA Simulations Founder Dr. Charlene Brown, and Nursing Content Developer, Danielle Young RN, discussed how to prepare students for CNA charting, common problems CNA instructors face teaching CNAs how to document, and more. Below are some of the many important takeaways from the webinar, as well as input from some of the CNA instructors across the country who were in attendance.
Basics of Simulation and Documentation (1:00-3:00)
“[Simulation is] a technique, not a technology, to replace or amplify real experiences with guided experiences that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive way”
(Gaba, 2004)
In this section of the webinar, Dr. Brown gave an overview of virtual clinical simulations, what they consist of, and several examples of simulations you may have encountered before. Three important focus areas of CNA Simulations’ design, consistent with INACSL best practices, are Pre-briefing, Simulation, and Debriefing, with much of student learning and CNA skill development taking place in the Debriefing sections.
How to Prepare Students for Documentation (3:00-4:45)
In this section, Danielle Young, RN, overviewed how to prepare students for clinical simulations. Some important things to remember are to review that CNA charting results in a legal record and that CNA documentation should be done as soon as the care is complete. Young RN uses this advice with her students as well. In this section, it was also discussed how to teach what to document, as well as teaching how to decipher subjective versus objective data.
Teaching Challenges (4:45-7:15)
“With my students, they have the independent supervision, and total [categories] are really easy to understand, but they get a little confused when it comes to limited assistance and extensive assistance [in documentation]...They really didn’t understand that you always document the highest level of assistance”
-Julie Reynolds LVN, C-NM, QCP (Texas)
(aka Nurse JAR)
Young RN spoke about some of the common challenges that she, as a high school and college CNA instructor, faces in the classroom and many common concerns she has heard from others. Things like a lack of technology, financial limitations, lack of understanding by administrators, limited time, faculty shortages, not having students access to EMRs in clinical settings, and more.
Solutions and the Future of CNA Charting (7:15-26:15)
-Marolyn Cooper RN (Arkansas)
“One of the things that I love was that when doing Ms. Sophie’s foot care, she [the student] had to stop at the moment to contact the nurse to let her know that there was something out of the ordinary...those are good conversational pieces that we are finding within the simulation.”
Through virtual simulation data, the CNA Simulations team has gathered a lot of helpful data, giving insights into how students struggle and what can be done to fix it. In this webinar, Dr. Brown discussed in-depth things like struggles translating documentation requirements out of context, integrating knowledge within real-world scenarios, understanding levels of dependence, and more. Young RN also elaborated on her experiences with “levels of dependence” and creative classroom activities and CNA clinical skills scenarios that she and others have used to help students contextualize information.
Much of what CNA Simulations has developed revolves around things learned from student performance and how to help students make connections. Young RN explained how her instructional experiences helped her design virtual CNA simulations with examples. Dr. Brown elaborated on many of the resources CNA Simulations provides CNA instructors to help students overcome CNA charting challenges, like their summary materials, documentation answer keys, pre-briefing materials on the basics of documentation, and a “levels of dependence” cheat sheet.
In addition, CNA Simulations continues to work to stay ahead of the curve and is developing instructional resources like teaching videos, CNA clinical skills scenarios, and CNA instructor guidance on leveraging virtual simulations in class. All of these are discussed by Dr. Brown.
Further Discussion (26:15-59:53)
At this point in the webinar, Dr. Brown and Young RN began fielding the questions, as CNA instructors in attendance were encouraged to ask what was on their minds and share some of their unique stories from the classroom. Many found that they were not alone in some of the challenges they faced in teaching CNA charting to students.
Some attendees discussed how virtual clinical simulations could help bridge knowledge gaps in education and promote competency in documentation, coding and objective documentation, students' spelling troubles, CNA Games, and more.
Schedule a Demo
And to stay up to date on all things CNA Simulations, don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list, which has information about webinars like this one. Or, if you’re a CNA instructor, schedule a demo for a personalized tour of CNA Simulations.
