IntroductionJunior students making the transition from pre-clinical to clinical years often struggle to integrate into ward teams during ward-round activities. The SimRound is a novel approach to facilitate embedding of junior medical students into incumbent ward teams through simulation rounds specially designed to replicate actual ward-round proceedings. Using the situated learning and cognitive load theories, this study aims to describe the rationale, processes and lessons learnt from our experience in developing the SimRound. MethodsThird-year students undergo two SimRound sessions at weeks two and six during the eight-week General Medicine clerkship. There are four phases in each SimRound: Prioritisation and triage; pre-round; consultant round; and evaluation and feedback. Using framework analysis, we compared open-ended survey data from pre-SimRound and SimRound cohorts to develop descriptive and explanatory accounts of identified themes. ResultsDespite the benefits to learning from being embedded in the ward team, students reported challenges to learning arising from engagement and team identity; increased intrinsic load; and increased extraneous load. SimRound addresses this by enabling deliberate learning in a controlled and authentic setting with inter-professional participation. The reduction of cognitive load enabled students to assimilate the necessary knowledge and skills.In conclusion, SimRound complements embedding and facilitates the integration of junior students into the community of practice of incumbent ward teams.