Preparing students for safe practice using an interprofessional ward simulation

We describe an interprofessional ward simulation for final year medical, nursing and pharmacy students, which has been rarely represented in current literature. Our objectives were as follows: 1. Identify patient safety issues in a ward environment: 2. Develop confidence in communicating with other healthcare professionals: 3. Recognise the roles of other health care professionals: 4. Prepare for registered clinical practice. The study comprised seven half day simulation sessions with a total of 92 participants. The simulation was evaluated using pre and post-session questionnaires combining Likert style and free text questions. 89 paired questionnaires were obtained and Likert responses were analysed using a two tailed t-test, using a p-value of 0.001. Free text answers were thematically analysed. Both patient safety and interprofessional education are important components in health care education. We describe our session including an overview of the simulation and a case example.