Internationally educated nurses (IEN) are an essential part of the nursing work force In the United States (U.S.). The current nursing shortage in the United States, which started in 2001, is the longest on record. According to Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), there are as many as 800,000 nurses are needed by 2020. Increasingly, the U.S. health care system relies on international nurses to meet staffing needs. Most international nurses in the United States come from Asian countries, especially the Philippines, India, Korea, and increasingly China. According to Xu, Zaikina-Montgomery and Shen, 2010, a significantly higher proportion of international nurses were in direct patient-care positions compared with their American counterparts, based on the data of 2004 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN). IEN need to have a successful transition into their unfamiliar practice setting. Due to conflicting professional and socioeconomic expectations, a growing body of literature has documented a range of challenges experienced by international nurses during their transition to U.S. health-care environment and the American society. This project set out to reveal how much impact a computer-assisted patient simulator experience had on the perceived self-efficacy of IEN. This interventional project demonstrated the impact of teaching using computer-assisted patient simulators on the perceived self-efficacy of IEN, using Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory. Rosswurm and Larrabee’s Model for Change to Evidence Based Practice (EBP) was utilize as the systematic process for change model to address and guide the steps in developing this project. A repeated measure ANOVA with time point was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the participants’ baseline self-confidence score and students’ follow-up self-confidence score in managing a cardiac event after a computer-assisted simulation experience was imposed. IEN were exposed to a computer assisted simulation experience, a strategy that increases the perceived self-efficacy of internationally educated nurses. The goal of this project was to successfully implement a teaching intervention using computer assisted human patient simulation that will improve the self-efficacy of internationally eucated nurses, as they transition to the U.S. nursing work force. The project manager (PM) believes that a systematic process for change project utilizing the evidence-based practice related to simulation has served as a solid foundation that enhanced the self-efficacy of the IEN working in the selected facility where the project was piloted. It is the author’s recommendation to use the facility as a model for other health care facility employing IEN in order to improve safety and quality of care as rendered by these special nurses population.
