Scottish healthcare student's perceptions of an interprofessional ward simulation: An exploratory, descriptive study

Abstract

The most memorable learning occurs during placement. Simulated interprofessional learning is a logical learning opportunity to help healthcare professionals work beyond their professional silos. In this qualitative study, we investigated the perceived learning of students from six health professions (adult nursing, diagnostic radiography, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dietetics, and pharmacy) from their participation in a 45 min interprofessional ward simulation. Semistructured focus groups were undertaken, and data were analyzed using framework analysis. Two overarching themes were evident, each of which had subthemes: (i) the ward simulation as an interprofessional education opportunity (subthemes: reality of situations and interactions); and (ii) the perceived learning achieved (subthemes: professional roles, priorities, respect, communication, teamwork, and quality of care). The results indicated that a short interprofessional ward simulation, unsupported by additional learning opportunities or directed study, is a useful and engaging interprofessional learning opportunity. Students appear to have learnt important key messages central to the interprofessional education curricula to help develop practitioners who can effectively work together as an interprofessional team, and that this learning is partly due to simulation allowing things to go wrong.

Ward culture and staff relationships at hospital mealtimes in Australia: An ethnographic account

“…The responsibility of promoting interprofessional collaboration at mealtimes must also extend to educational institutions. Studies on interprofessional education typically involve health‐care professions, such as medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, and pharmacy (Hammick, Freeth, Koppel, Reeves, & Barr, ; McKenna et al, ; Roberts & Goodhand, ), with little attention paid to effective collaboration with support service personnel. The findings of the present study support previous reports that foodservice staff are integral to nutrition care through their role in meal preparation and delivery (Keller et al, ; Ottrey & Porter, ), thus should be considered part of the health‐care team.…”

“…The responsibility of promoting interprofessional collaboration at mealtimes must also extend to educational institutions. Studies on interprofessional education typically involve health-care professions, such as medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, and pharmacy (Hammick, Freeth, Koppel, Reeves, & Barr, 2007;McKenna et al, 2014;Roberts & Goodhand, 2018), with little attention paid to effective collaboration with support service personnel.…”

Interprofessional learning in social and health care—Learning experiences from large‐group simulation in Finland

“…The experiences obtained from interprofessional simulations have been mostly positive (Costello et al, 2018;Ivey, Bowman, & Lockeman, 2018;Jakobsen et al, 2018;Popkess et al, 2017;Roberts & Goodhand, 2018;Zamjahn et al, 2018), and there have been few differences in the participants' satisfaction levels based on different occupational groups or sectors. However, in a study by Jakobsen et al (2018), medical students were found to learn more than nursing students about the leader's role during a simulation.…”

“…The participants in interprofessional simulations have appreciated the related opportunity for learning in situations that resemble reality (Costello et al, 2018;Hovland, Whitford, & Niederriter, 2018;Naismith et al, 2020) and allow applying theory to practice (Hovland et al, 2018). Professional simulation training has supported the learning of high-quality care and the development of the learners' professional growth (Roberts & Goodhand, 2018). The participants have found that the simulations have increased their confidence in their own skills (Hovland et al, 2018;Jakobsen et al, 2018;Smith et al, 2018) and helped them prioritize patient needs (Roberts & Goodhand, 2018;Smith et al, 2018).…”

“…(Labrague et al., 2018; Mai et al., 2019; Naismith, Kowalski, Soklaridis, Kelly, & Walsh, 2020). Moreover, simulations provide a safe context for practicing healthcare scenarios that enable imitating complex cases in healthcare environments nearly identically to their real‐life counterparts without causing any risk to real patients (Roberts & Goodhand, 2018).…”