Interprofessional Gratitude: Partnering With Registered Nurses as Embedded Participants in a Medical Education Patient Death Simulation Experience

Background: Embedded participants (EPs) are non-learners trained to specific roles in simulation encounters. EPs contributing to specialized simulations may require unique skills. Partnering with health care providers with competencies complementary to desired EP roles is a possible way to address this need. Our team partnered with registered nurses (RNs) as EPs in a simulation in which the objective was for medical students to experience a imulated death in a supported environment. In this qualitative descriptive study, we address: What are medical students’ reactions to experienced RNs partnering as EPs during a simulation about the death of a patient? Methods: Two hundred seventy-seven preclinical, second-year medical students wrote written reflections that were thematically analyzed with high levels of interrater reliability. Results: Students expressed gratitude for RNs partnering as EPs, described by subthemes of gratitude for nursing leadership, team-based medical care, and processing opportunities. Conclusions: RNs partnering as EPs effectively guided medical students through a patient death simulation. Simulationists should seek ways to leverage the deep, varied skill set of experienced RNs to partner as EPs in specialized medical education simulation.