Background Inherent features in virtual simulation could be utilised to deliver collaborative global education that is inclusive, accessible, and valued by students and facilitators. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the International Eyecare Community (IEC) platform’s virtual simulated international placements (VSIP) in optometric education. Methods An international, multi-center, cross-sectional mixed methods study with Deakin University, Australia, and the Elite School of Optometry, India, was used to evaluate the impact of VSIP in the IEC using pre-existing deidentified data collected from teaching and learning activities within the optometry course curriculum. Data on students and facilitators perceptions of the VSIP were collected through deidentified transcripts from focus group discussions. The data were interpreted using descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis using constant comparison for thematic analysis. Results A total of 64 out of 167 student participants completed survey responses (39%) and 46 out of 167 (28%) completed self-reflective inventories. Focus groups with 6 student participants and 6 facilitator participants were recorded and analysed. Student participants reported the IEC was relevant (98% agreement) and motivated them to apply theoretical knowledge to a clinical context (97% agreement). The themes identified through qualitative analysis were: factors inherent to the virtual simulation that enabled learning through VSIP, the VSIP supported cognitive apprenticeship, VSIP enabled clinical learning for optometric education, VSIP’ role in cross-cultural professional identity development in optometry students. Conclusion The study found that the VSIP platform helped to motivate students to learn and improve their clinical skills. The VSIP was considered a potential supplement to physical clinical placements and could revolutionize global optometric education by offering co-learning across cultures.

This article engages in an anthropological analysis of brokerage to investigate the role of community support officers (CSOs) and mental health clinicians working on implementing post conflict reconstruction and reconciliation projects in Jaffna, in the North of Sri Lanka. I propose that CSOs and mental health clinicians become cultural brokers in health care by operating beyond the universal clinical assumptions associated with mental illness and distress, navigating the space and interrelationship between community-based local voices, national health priorities and the translocal agendas of the global mental health framework. The CSOs and mental health clinicians’ scope of authority, the complexity of their social and cultural activities along with their agentive capacity in representing marginalised voices enables them to facilitate, be responsible for and actively influence the process of intermediation and translation; in other words, they engage in brokerage. This article provides insights into the socio-cultural matrix of mental distress and suffering in post-conflict affected communities in the North of Sri Lanka and builds on brokerage theory to recognise evolving social and political landscapes in translocal mental health diagnosis and treatment.