Student experiences of interprofessional simulation: Findings from a qualitative study

Abstract

Interprofessional simulation provides healthcare profession students an opportunity to collaborate in a team. The purpose of this study was to examine student perspectives of an interprofessional simulation experience within the fields of nursing, physical therapy, nutrition, and social work. An exploratory case study design was employed, using open-ended interview questions post-simulation to generate information about the student's perceptions of the experience. Based on the content analysis of reflection articles submitted by 100 students across professions, three themes emerged from the data: increased understanding of the role of other professionals, increased sense of confidence and ability to improve patient outcomes, and increased appreciation for inter-professional simulation as a valuable learning experience. Participants felt a sense of comfort in working as a team, which in turn fostered confidence in their own role. This is an important finding, as confidence in one's own role in conjunction with increased willingness to work in a team is a powerful force for changing the ways in which professions interact with one another. Interprofessional simulation is a teaching strategy that shows great promise for promoting teamwork among the healthcare professions.

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). Simulations have also allowed the participants to increase their understanding of the roles and responsibilities of other professionals (Bradway et al, 2018;Costello et al, 2018;Pinto et al, 2018;Wietholter et al, 2017;Zamjahn et al, 2018). Furthermore, interprofessional simulations have developed the participants' leadership skills (Jakobsen et al, 2018;Pinto et al, 2018) and improved their stress management ability (Jakobsen et al, 2018).…”

“…To develop the expertise of interprofessional collaboration, the role of multidisciplinary learning and teaching between different professions is systematically highlighted (Cahill, O’Donell, Warren, Taylor, & Gowan, 2013; World Health Organization (WHO), 2010). However, the education in social and health care rarely provides opportunities for practicing and developing interprofessional collaboration skills before students transition to the working life, as the training of professionals mainly takes place in their specific professional fields (Costello et al., 2018) and mostly focuses on the technical and substantive aspects of work. This can cause difficulties in working in interprofessional teams after graduation if newly graduated professionals have no previous experience of such collaboration as they enter the workforce (Johnston, Coyer, & Nash, 2017; Palese et al., 2019).…”

Avaliação de competências individuais e interprofissionais de profissionais de saúde em atividades clínicas simuladas: scoping review

“…A formação interprofissional é eficaz para o desenvolvimento de profissionais competentes, possibilitando: um estilo de educação que permite o trabalho em equipe, a integração e a flexibilidade da força de trabalho, além da reflexão dos aprendizes sobre a necessidade de domínios de conhecimentos, habilidades e atitudes para que possam atuar e contribuir para a socialização entre os profissionais 6,7 . Também permite a discussão de temas que, normalmente, apenas margeiam os conteúdos curriculares de uma forma pouco prática, como: profissionalismo, liderança, comunicação, tomada de decisão, administração e gerenciamento, educação permanente, ética e bioética, e juízo de crenças e valores pessoais e corporativos, compondo as competências gerais (ou comuns a todos os profissionais da saúde) da prática interprofissional compartilhada.…”