International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background and aim:

The Nursing and Allied Health Professions (AHP) Departments of one of the largest providers of health and social care education in the UK, have implemented simulated practice-based learning placements across a range of their pre-registration healthcare courses. These simulated placements aim to improve students’ preparedness to practice, enhance the student experience and increase placement capacity. The simulation leads from each department identified that there was no cross-department collaboration around these new innovations. They developed and introduced a Simulation Community of Practice (CoP) across the three nursing fields and eight AHP professions. The aims were to share knowledge and best practice, enhance skills, creation of new knowledge and improve practice. A CoP is defined as a ‘group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis’ [1].

Activity:

The development of the CoP was led by the nursing and AHP simulation leads and was based on Wenger’s (2002) CoP framework [1]. Support was gained from senior management to ensure commitment and resources. Terms of reference for the group were developed with clear aims and objectives. Relevant staff across all professions were identified and invited to join. Meetings occur every two months for a duration of two hours, initially online and more recently face to face or hybrid format. Agenda items include sharing and reflections of practice, challenges and solutions; demonstrations of simulated scenarios, online learning packages and virtual reality. Guest speakers are invited to share simulation expertise and research. A Teams site is used to house information, share new developments and opportunities and to allow staff to ask questions and maintain communication between meetings.

Findings:

Staff have gained valuable professional development by learning from others, sharing designs and experiences of simulated placements and learning about best practice. They have enjoyed networking and connecting with others from different professions. They have valued seeing examples of simulated scenarios and innovations and having dedicated time to reflect and discuss innovations and research opportunities. They have found it a supportive environment and a creative space. 100% of staff involved would recommend the CoP to others.

Conclusion:

The successful introduction of a multidisciplinary Simulation CoP has enabled collaboration and development of knowledge and skills around simulated practice-based learning, including the underpinning pedagogies of simulation design and debriefing.

Ethics statement:

Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.