Inclusive Simulation for Weight Bias Reduction to Prepare Students for Equity-Driven Nursing Practice

Grant:

Faculty Development Fund (FDF)

Academic Year:

2022 - 2023 (June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023)

Funding Requested:

$9,963.56

Project Dates:

Tue, 08/01/2023 - Sat, 08/31/2024

Applicant(s):

mbathish

marsjess

swpingel

Overview of the Project:

The obesity epidemic in the U.S. impacts roughly 42% of individuals (CDC, 2021), and a 66% rise in weight discrimination has occurred over the past decade (Fruh et al., 2016). Obesity impacts not only physical health and wellbeing but influences the quality of care that overweight and obese individuals receive. To address this inequity, this project aims to use inclusive simulation strategies to educate nursing students in the care of overweight/obese patients.
Currently, all simulation manikins in the School of Nursing represent a thin body type. This inhibits hands-on content for overweight/obese patients in the curriculum. If selected for funding, we aim to improve our existing practice by disrupting the thin body type norm of training equipment. Money from the Faculty Development Fund would aid in purchasing four bariatric obesity simulation suits (Sim U Suit, 2022) that can be weighted and fit over existing manikins or live persons. These suits will allow for more realistic student experiences to enhance the quality of learning in the care of overweight/obese patients.
Simulated student experiences with the suits will be created based on the level of clinical development. Students will be invited to complete a survey prior to and immediately after their training or simulation to measure cultural humility, overweight/obesity bias, and the perceived effectiveness of the simulation. This project has the potential to positively influence the readiness of graduating and registered nurses to engage in inclusive practices and reduce weight biases, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

Assess sophomore nursing students' attitudes, beliefs, and cultural humility toward overweight/obese patients.
Provide knowledge and skills training to sophomore nursing students in caring for overweight/obese patients through simulated training using obesity suits.

Project Achievements:

a. Summarize the projectâ€™s major achievements, including the impact this project has had on your teaching and on your department, program, school or college.

A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is essential for nursing educational institutions to effectively serve their students, faculty, and communities (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021; Institute of Medicine, 2016; National League for Nursing, 2021). Inclusivity and diversity are not concepts that exist in a vacuum; they are part of every nurse-patient interaction. Nurse educators must, therefore, seek innovative ways to train nurses to become culturally competent and inclusive while providing evidence-based care. This project augmented didactic content from nursing courses throughout both the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs to increase cultural humility and decrease obesity bias, strengthen competence in caring for obese patients, and positively influence safe practice and positive patient outcomes.

b. How many students were impacted by this project?

This current study impacted 200 Undergraduate nursing students in their sophomore year of the BSN program. The future impact will include 250 Undergraduate sophomore students in their HEALTH ASSESSMENT course, 250 Undergraduate nursing sophomore students in their INTRODUCTION TO CLINICAL PRACTICE course, and 100 Graduate nursing students in their ADVANCED HEALTH ASSESSMENT course.

c. How many courses were impacted by this project?

Current study: NURS234

Future Impact: NURS 234, NURS 233, NURS 503

Continuation:

The current project is continuing beyond the grant period. The use of the obesity suits for the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward overweight/obese patients will be incorporated into additional courses in the upcoming academic year and can be ingrained in the curriculum without any additional anticipated future costs. Sophomore-level nursing students will continue with the same simulated training experience as introduced during the grant period, and an additional simulation patient-care experience will be developed for continued learning during the second semester of the sophomore year.

Additionally, efforts to increase knowledge, skills, and attitudes to address bias toward overweight/obese patients continue as part of the Health Equity and Inclusion Foundations Canvas site. Content gleaned from the work of this grant provides the foundation for the weight-biased module in the Canvas course. This Canvas site includes various health equity topics and is available for faculty to use in their courses. The Canvas site is part of the School of Nursingâ€™s DEI Office.

Dissemination:

Results of this research project have already been presented regionally via poster presentation at the Michigan State University College of Nursing Research Day, and will be presented to an international audience via 45-minute podium presentation at the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Nursing Conference:

Marsack, J., Wintermeyer-Pingel, S. Bathish, M. Equity-Driven Nursing Practice: Inclusive Simulations for Weight Bias Reduction using Overweight/Obesity Suits. Michigan State University College of Nursing Research Day. East Lansing, MI. March 11, 2024.

Marsack, J., Wintermeyer-Pingel, S. Bathish, M. Inclusive Simulation for Weight Bias Reduction to Prepare Students for Equity-Driven Nursing Practice. . International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning. Raleigh, NC. June 15-17, 2024.

The research team is also currently working on disseminating the intervention and results via publication in the Journal of Nursing Education. The article is in revision.

Advice to your Colleagues:

Facilitating factor:: working/integrating within already existing course rather than building a new structure.

One challenge was the limited physical space in our Clinical Learning Center Skills Lab, which expanded into hallways and other teaching spaces.

Another challenge was that new equipment, such as larger gowns to fit suits, etc., was needed and budgeted for. We could overcome this in future projects by budgeting extra for this or potentially working with the hospital system/MSC to obtain supplies if it is possible.

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