2021 Graduate Student Grant Recipient

Jessica Mulli, MN

Jessica Mulli is a Master of Nursing thesis student, and undergraduate clinical and simulation educator in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary. Jessica is passionate about helping students make connections in their learning and believes that facilitating reflective practice during simulation can improve knowledge translation and safe, high quality, nursing care.


Dr. Lorelli Nowell

Lorelli Nowell PhD

Supervisor. University of Alberta


Facilitating Reflection-in-Action During High-Fidelity Simulation

Within high-fidelity simulation, facilitator supported reflection is critical to student learning. Reflection-before-action, reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action are often identified as the timepoints at which students undergo reflection within high-fidelity simulation. These processes can be simplified as reflecting on actions in the future, present, and past. Facilitator supported reflection is widely considered the essential step to facilitating learning in high-fidelity simulation education and the literature focuses heavily on reflection-on-action through debriefing, with a recent shift to reflection-before-action through prebriefing. However, some believe that the hallmark of mastery or artistry of a subject depends upon an individual’s ability to reflect in the moment (reflect-in-action). Despite this belief, across disciplines, the literature on reflection-in-action during high-fidelity simulation remains limited when compared to literature on prebriefing and debriefing. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the current state of simulation facilitator training regarding reflection-in-action and how nursing simulation facilitators identify and support students to reflect-in-action during high-fidelity simulation. Design: I have chosen descriptive phenomenology to understand simulation facilitators meaning of reflection-in-action. Methods: Six semi-structured interviews will be conducted with undergraduate nursing instructors who use high-fidelity simulation as a teaching modality to explore their experiences of identifying and promoting reflection-in-action during high-fidelity simulation. Interviews will be transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Colaizzi’s process: through making transcription notes, extracting significant statements, and clustering statements into themes for comparison. Themes will be described, and findings will be returned to participants for validation. After findings are validated, this research will be written up in the form of a manuscript and submitted for publication Conclusion: When students are supported to reflect-in-action, they gain new understanding, skills, and self-confidence. Understanding how nursing simulation facilitators identify and support reflection-in-action within high-fidelity simulation is essential to better cultivate and support nursing students’ reflective processes.

WNRCASN