Stakeholders in healthcare and education find interprofessional teamwork to be crucial for todays complex healthcare. Consequently, the students need to prepare for future collaboration with other professions. Interprofessional simulation (IPS) is a technique in which several professions can engage together in clinical scenarios. Using a survey we studied the perceived relevance of two IPS settings in which last-year medical and nursing students participated in acute care scenarios. The findings showed that students perceive IPS as being highly relevant and that students from the other profession contributed to their learning. IPS holds promise as a pedagogical tool towards future interprofessional competence. However, pedagogical improvements can be made, and the professional perspectives can be better balanced. Furthermore, in order to equip students with broader interprofessional competence, scenarios should include several professions and a variety of clinical contexts.

Studenter behöver träna på teamarbete och utveckla interprofessionell kompetens för att rustas för framtidens hälso- och sjukvård.

Utbildning för interprofessionell samverkan kan ske genom simulering där läkar- och sjuksköterskestudenter möts och agerar tillsammans i patientscenarier. 

Interprofessionell simulering upplevdes som relevant och engagerande av studenter på två lärosäten. Studenter från den andra professionen bidrog till lärandet. Det finns dock utrymme att ytterligare förbättra det pedagogiska genomförandet, och professionsperspektiven kan balanseras bättre. 

Från och med 2009 erbjuds praktiska färdighetsövningar på Clinicum där läkarstudenter under handledning går genom teoretisk bakgrund och övar genomförande av praktiska färdigheter kopplade till mål inom cirkulation, respiration och ortopedi på anatomiska modeller. En observationsstudie genomfördes med fokus på studentcentrerat lärande, meningsfullhet och relevans, samt lärande i samarbete med andra. Det konstaterades att lärmomentet genomförs i enlighet med grundläggande principer för PBL, är stark kopplat till den kliniska praktiken, samt att det bjuder in till att lära i samarbete med andra.

Förbättringsmöjligheter identifierades i tillgänglighet av referensmaterial om teoretisk bakgrund före utbildningsmomentet för att underlätta undervisningens anpassning till studenternas aktuella kunskaper. Att dessutom göra det möjligt att skicka frågor till lärarna som förberedelse skulle bidra till ökad individualisering och effektivisering av utbildningsmomenten.

Collaborative reasoning occurs in clinical practice but is rarely developed during education. The computerized virtual patient (VP) cases allow for a stepwise exploration of cases and thus stimulate active learning. Peer settings during VP sessions are believed to have benefits in terms of reasoning but have received scant attention in the literature.

Lack of nurse‒physician collaboration in wound care may result in prolonged healing times for patients. In order to facilitate future professional collaboration, undergraduate learning activities in interprofessional education (IPE) have been proposed. The aim of this study was to investigate nursing and medical students’ attitudes and perceptions towards each other’s future professions and interprofessional collaboration in wound care. Nursing and medical students took part in an interprofessional learning activity about wound care. Data were collected using the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes towards Physician‒Nurse Collaboration questionnaire to student groups before and after an IPE activity (pooled n = 221). Focus groups were conducted to deepen the knowledge about students’ attitudes and perceptions. The results showed high scores on the attitude scale (mean 53.2, possible maximum = 60) both before and after IPE, indicating positive attitudes towards nurse‒physician collaboration. Nursing students scored higher than medical students both pre-IPE (p < 0.001) and post-IPE (p = 0.006). However, no difference on scale scores could be identified between pre- and post-IPE. The following themes emerged in the analysis of focus group discussions: “Approaching patient care from different perspectives,” “Need for collaboration and clear professional roles in practice,” “Structures hindering future collaboration,” and “IPE as a tool for professional practice and roles.” The shared learning activity provided insights into the other profession’s competence. This kind of learning activity may increase future interprofessional collaboration, and thus, improve wound care.

Background: Medical simulation enables the design of learning activities for competency areas (eg, communication and leadership) identified as crucial for future health care professionals. Simulation educators and medical teachers follow different career paths, and their education backgrounds and teaching contexts may be very different in a simulation setting. Although they have a key role in facilitating learning, information on the continuing professional development (pedagogical development) of simulation educators is not available in the literature.

Objectives: To explore changes in experienced simulation educators’ perceptions of their own teaching skills, practices, and understanding of teaching over time.

Methods: A qualitative exploratory study. Fourteen experienced simulation educators participated in individual open-ended interviews focusing on their development as simulation educators. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Marked educator development was discerned over time, expressed mainly in an altered way of thinking and acting. Five themes were identified: shifting focus, from following to utilizing a structure, setting goals, application of technology, and alignment with profession. Being confident in the role as an instructor seemed to constitute a foundation for the instructor’s pedagogical development.

Conclusion: Experienced simulation educators’ pedagogical development was based on self-confidence in the educator role, and not on a deeper theoretical understanding of teaching and learning. This is the first clue to gain increased understanding regarding educational level and possible education needs among simulation educators, and it might generate several lines of research for further studies.

The increasing complexity of health care practice makes continuing professional development (CPD) essential for health care professionals. Simulation-based training is a CPD activity that is often applied to improve interprofessional collaboration and the quality of care. The aim of this study is to explore simulation as a pedagogical practice for the CPD of health care professionals. Specifically, the study focuses on how a professional development activity, the simulation, is enacted to support interprofessional collaboration and learning. A practice theory perspective is used as the theoretical framework. In this, the professional practice is conceptualised as being embodied, relational and situated in sociomaterial arrangements. Ten introduction and reflection sessions following interprofessional full-scale manikin-based simulations with professionals were video-recorded. The recordings were analysed following a stepwise qualitative collaborative approach developed for the purpose. The key findings suggest that the professional competence activity is enacted and interconnected with and governed by historical traditions of institutional teaching practices as well as simulation practices. Despite the intentions of team and interprofessional training, the institutional teaching and simulation practices constrain and hinder the intended outcomes of professional development in interprofessional collaboration.

The advantages of providing standardized education avoiding exposure of real patients to interventions by novices are appealing both from patient safety and teaching aspects, thus medical simulation has become an integrated part of the healthcare curriculum.

We explored the impact of gender and an acting vs. an observing role in simulation on students’ perceptions of learning outcomes, and of simulation as a learning activity.

A prospective survey for graduating medical students participating in a full day simulated team training session was conducted over three terms. The questionnaire addressed issues related to the session, teamwork and simulation training in general. Participation was voluntary and the study was approved by the regional ethics committee.

The overall response rate was 90.8 %. Authenticity and relevance were considered to be high, though male students scored significantly higher both for authenticity and for relevance.  Communication and teamwork were considered to be different, depending on gender and assigned role. Female students and students in an acting role were more ready to discuss knowledge gaps, experienced “good” communication significantly more often, and defined their work as teamwork more frequently.  The scenarios were found to be more stimulating and motivating by female students and acting individuals. Self-confidence and self-awareness were declared to be more enhanced for male students and for those who were acting during the simulation sessions. Observers and female students scored significantly lower as regards satisfaction with both the extent of the reflection and the individual feedback.

The perceptions of authenticity and relevance of simulation sessions and students’ readiness to discuss knowledge gaps differed between genders. Furthermore, perceived changes in self-confidence and self-awareness seemed to be different. The observing role implies a different kind of learning process, which is not necessarily inferior to learning by acting.

Background

The rationale for introducing full-scale patient simulators in training to improve patient safety is to recreate clinical situations in a realistic setting. Although high-fidelity simulators mimic a wide range of human features, simulators differ from the body of a sick patient. The gap between the simulator and the human body implies a need for facilitators to provide information to help participants understand scenarios. The authors aimed at describing different methods that facilitators in our dataset used to provide such extra scenario information and how the different methods to convey information affected how scenarios played out.

Methods

A descriptive qualitative study was conducted to examine the variation of methods to deliver extra scenario information to participants. A multistage approach was employed. The authors selected film clips from a shared database of 31 scenarios from three participating simulation centers. A multidisciplinary research team performed a collaborative analysis of representative film clips focusing on the interplay between participants, facilitators, and the physical environment. After that, the entire material was revisited to further examine and elaborate the initial findings.

Results

The material displayed four distinct methods for facilitators to convey information to participants in simulation-based teamwork training. The choice of method had impact on the participating teams regarding flow of work, pace, and team communication. Facilitators’ close access to the teams’ activities when present in the simulation suite, either embodied or disembodied in the simulation, facilitated the timing for providing information, which was critical for maintaining the flow of activities in the scenario. The mediation of information by a loudspeaker or an earpiece from the adjacent operator room could be disturbing for team communication.

Conclusions

In-scenario instruction is an essential component of simulation-based teamwork training that has been largely overlooked in previous research. The ways in which facilitators convey information about the simulated patient have the potential to shape the simulation activities and thereby serve different learning goals. Although immediate timing to maintain an adequate pace is necessary for professionals to engage in training of medical emergencies, novices may gain from a slower tempo to train complex clinical team tasks systematically.

En gemensam simuleringsdag för sjuksköterske- och läkarstudenter har utvärderats och diskuteras här i relation till interprofessionellt lärande och simuleringsbaserat lärande.

IPL-simuleringen kännetecknas av ett starkt studentengagemang och upplevs som mycket relevant och kliniskt autentisk. Den simuleringsbaserade satsningen är alltså fortsatt aktuell och har utvecklats till en hög nivå med relevans för lärande och klinisk förberedelse. Innehållet rör såväl kliniska som team­relaterade kunskaper och kompetenser. Simulering som undervisningsform uppskattas högt och simulerings­instruktörens bidrag till lärandet lyfts fram. Ambitionsnivån kan ytterligare höjas på några punkter. Kurskamraternas bidrag i lärandet kan ytterligare stärkas, likaså omvårdnads­innehållet i scenarierna.

IPL-mål adresseras i aktiviteten, i synnerhet ökar teamsamverkan progressivt under dagen. Det inter­professionella lärandet kan stärkas ännu mer  genom att linjera tydligare med övriga IPL-moment samt knyta an till de uttalade IPL-curriculum-målen.

Background: Virtual Patients (VPs) have been in the focus of research in healthcare education for many years. The aim of our study was to analyze how virtual patients are described in the healthcare education literature, and how the identified concepts relate to each other. Methods: We performed a literature review and extracted 185 descriptions of virtual patients from the articles. In a qualitative content analysis approach we inductively-deductively developed categories and deducted subcategories. We constructed a concept map to illustrate these concepts and their interrelations. Results: We developed the following five main categories: Patient, Teacher, Virtual Patient, Curriculum, and Learner. The concept map includes these categories and highlights aspects such as the under-valued role of patients in shaping their virtual representation and opposing concepts, such as standardization of learner activity versus learner-centeredness. Conclusions: The presented concept map synthesizes VP descriptions and serves as a basis for both, VP use and discussions of research topics related to virtual patients.