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Effective measures are required to mitigate the persisting nursing staff shortage. The identification of factors for choosing the profession is important for planning recruitment strategies. This study presents nursing students’ perceptions of factors that had influenced their decision to apply for the nursing program. Data was collected in March 2022 from 94 first, second and third-year nursing students in Finland. The qualitative data was analyzed using inductive content analysis. Factors that could make nursing more appealing: 1. Advancing the role of nursing at the level of individuals, organizations, and society 2. Meaningful nursing duties 3. More influence over one's work 4. Better working conditions and well-being at work 5. Development of nursing leadership 6. Work and career advancement Factors that can decrease the appeal of the nursing profession: 1. Decreased appreciation of nursing within the profession and in society 2. Mismatch salary vs. demanding workload and working conditions 3. Mismatch between staff resourcing and workload 4. Lack of support and encouragement from leaders 5. Working atmosphere detrimental to psychological well-being It is essential to invest in promoting the image of nursing at the level of individuals, organizations and society and to support nurses’ occupational wellbeing and career pathways.

Purpose: to describe nursing students’ experiences of learning with help of virtual learning materials and virtual simulations. The aim was to produce knowledge that can be used to develop virtual simulation teaching and counseling further and to support students’ self-debriefing. Methods: This is a mixed method study conducted with 13 final-stage nursing students at a University of Applied Sciences in Finland. Following virtual simulations performed during an acute nursing course, the students completed a questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative items on their experiences and on the usefulness of the simulations. The findings are primarily based on an inductive content analysis of the students’ responses to qualitative items. The quantitative data, analyzed by means of SPSS, was used to support the qualitative analysis. Results: Most participants found virtual simulation learning and the use of virtual reality glasses a welcome change and a meaningful and safe way to promote their theoretical and practical competencies. They appreciated the possibility to choose the topic and the time and place of study. The simulations had been useful in practicing assessment and decision-making skills. Problem-solving, simulation of rare incidents, game-like elements and step-by-step feedback were proposed. A few students disliked the artificial setting and some reported headache and nausea. Conclusion: Virtual simulations and virtual reality glasses can be effectively used to teach final-stage nursing students as part of a blended learning approach. Careful planning of the learning contents and a suitable level of challenge in the simulations increase student motivation.

Emotional intelligence (EI) and situational awareness (SA) are important attributes for child protection professionals. In this qualitative study conducted in Finland, the aim was to explore how simulation-based learning could improve EI and SA of child protection professionals. Based on a learning needs assessment, a simulation-based educational intervention was provided for 36 professionals in 5 private providers of substitute care services for under 18-year-old children. Directly after the intervention, the participants were asked to recount in a short essay how the educational intervention had affected their EI and SA and other professional competence. Inductive content analysis was used to analyze the essays. The analysis revealed that the simulation coaching had been meaningful to the participants from four perspectives, increasing their awareness of their own and others’ emotions; making them better prepared to project themselves into another person’s position; increasing team intelligence, and as a form of work supervision. The results indicate that simulation coaching can be considered a useful tool for the development of EI, SA and related competencies in child protection professionals. Other professionals, whose work essentially involves close interaction with clients, may also consider the transferability of the findings to their work.

Continuous multiprofessional development and networking are essential elements of health and social care practice today. This paper gathers together the results gained so far of a regional research and development project and discusses their application and implications for future. The aims of the project were to create a network-like simulated learning environment, to develop multiprofessional simulation education for medical students and for students representing two levels of nursing education and to create a multiprofessional simulation-based coaching programme for health and social care professionals in small and medium-sized enterprises. The project partners were two educational institutions and a Central Hospital in Finland. The first sub-project involved an online survey at the turn of 2016 and 2017, whose purpose was to describe nursing and medical staff’s (n=125) knowledge of simulated learning and their experiences about the usefulness of simulation-based education. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS Statistics for Windows 24 and qualitative data using inductive content analysis. Another online survey was conducted as part of the second sub-project in 2017 to study nurse and practical nurse students’ experiences (n=21) of joint simulation training. The results were analysed using SPSS. The third sub-project, which aims at the development of a new simulation coaching project for health and social care staff in small and medium-sized enterprises, also involved a survey conducted in 2017 to study staff’s learning needs (n=125). The results of the three surveys confirmed that both nursing and medical staff, students and professionals working in small and medium-sized enterprises find multiprofessional simulation-based learning effective and useful in promoting networking and the exchange of knowledge, skills and support. This paper also discusses the practical applications of the project results.