Exploring Nursing Students' Perceptions of Electronic Fetal Monitoring App

Within the healthcare realm, innovative technology has become an integral part of teaching in today’s nursing education, specifically computer-generated teaching applications. A new application that combines both nursing simulation and teaching methods regarding electronic fetal monitoring and fetal heart rhythms was developed at the University of Tennessee in fall 2014.This application was created in collaboration with both the College of Engineering and the College of Nursing. The Electronic Fetal Monitoring App displays instructor-created fetal heart rate (FHR) and maternal contraction patterns to simulate a monitor enabling live- feed interpretation in the classroom or simulation setting. It also has the potential to be saved and recreated for further simulated learning experiences. With current nursing education using processes such as application involvement and simulation in the clinical environment, the evolvement and merger of simulation and technology applications has the potential to exponentially benefit patient outcomes. Therefore, with the creation of a novel simulation application incorporated into the classroom setting, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to explore nursing students’ learning experiences, attitudes, perceptions, and opinions regarding a fluid, dynamic, instructor-manipulated EFM application.