Examining participant perceptions of an interprofessional simulation-based trauma team training for medical and nursing students

Abstract

High quality care relies on interprofessional teamwork. We developed a short simulation-based course for final year medical, nursing and nursing anaesthesia students, using scenarios from emergency medicine. The aim of this paper is to describe the adaptation of an interprofessional simulation course in an undergraduate setting and to report participants' experiences with the course and students' learning outcomes. We evaluated the course collecting responses from students through questionnaires with both closed-ended and open-ended questions, supplemented by the facilitators' assessment of students' performance. Our data is based on responses from 310 students and 16 facilitators who contributed through three evaluation phases. In the analysis, we found that students reported emotional activation and learning outcomes within the domains self-insight and stress management, understanding of the leadership role, insight into teamwork, and skills in team communication. In subsequent questionnaire studies students reported having gained insights about communication, teamwork and leadership, and they believed they would be better leaders of teams and/or team members after having completed the course. Facilitators' observations suggested a progress in students' non-technical skills during the course. The facilitators observed that nursing anaesthesia students seemed to be more comfortable in finding their role in the team than the two other groups. In conclusion, we found that an interprofessional simulation-based emergency team training course with a focus on leadership, communication and teamwork, was feasible to run on a regular basis for large groups of students. The course improved the students' team skills and received a favourable evaluation from both students and faculty.

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. By contrast, in Popkess et al (2017), nursing students were more satisfied with a simulation as a learning method than dentistry and pharmacy students, even though the dentistry and pharmacy students were more knowledgeable than the nursing students in this study.…”

“…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).…”

Exploring simulation in medical clerkships

“…In accordance with this, a study in Norway by Jakobsen et al using simulationbased training for fi nal-year medical and nursing students reported an improvement in leadership, communication and teamworking skills in both student groups. 3 In conclusion, we agree that HFS in the undergraduate medical curriculum has positive outcomes from a clinical learning perspective; however, we also believe that incorporating an interprofessional element into simulation programmes worldwide provides a valuable opportunity for the participating health care students to develop their teamworking skills in a multidisciplinary context.…”

Interprofessional Communication (IPC) for Medical Students: A Scoping Review

“…Outcomes Outcomes were positive, with students reporting an increase in understanding of IPC (2, 52, 60, 76-79, 92-94, 99, 101, 102).Stage 2: Knows HowTo achieve the "Knows How" level of competence, students have to be cognizant of how to apply the concepts learnt in a variety of conditions including clinical and non-clinical scenarios. Clinical scenarios include cardiac resuscitations(56,64,75,89), handoff(103), mock pages(104,105), interactions with simulated patients(52,53,63,100,103) and manikins(58,79,81,83,(106)(107)(108)(109), communication with a senior clinician(101), simulated ward rounds(15,54,55,84,110,111), simulated family meetings(59), roleplay(72,112), paediatric clinical simulation(82), Objective…”