'It felt so real': Simulating authentic shared learning experiences for undergraduate mental health and child branch students

Hadland, Rachel; Kenny, Gerard

Abstract

Self-harm has been estimated to effect 1 in 15 young people (Young Minds, 2013) and frequently leads to hospital admissions, where young people are likely to encounter children’s nurses and mental health practitioners. Yet, there are limited experiences in practice for students to engage with one another and this client group during their training, due to practice capacity and the specialist nature of CAMHS placements (Richardson, 2010). Therefore the programme teams saw an opportunity to work collaboratively across the programmes by developing a shared learning day built around a young person called ‘Claire’. This was developed jointly as part of the move towards delivering a case based curriculum.

The challenges around developing effective simulated learning experiences in mental health nursing have been documented within the literature (Guise, et al., 2012) and much of the research has focused on the role simulation can play in relation to adult nursing. Therefore it was important to the developers that the day felt as real as possible and allowed students to dispel some of the aspects which were ‘simulated’ and take on the role as the healthcare professional in the scenario. Unlike some of the traditional aspects of simulation which focus on skill acquisition (Nagel et al, 2009), this scenario focused on the principles of experiential learning with drama students simulating the role of Claire.

Students were not given a structured activity to complete with Claire; rather they were given brief background and asked to spend time with Claire with a student from the other branch. Students engaged with Claire for 15 minutes and were then provided with direct feedback from the drama student based on their experience of their interaction with them. Feedback was provided on how they worked together, their communication skills and how they made them feel. This feedback provided students with a powerful learning opportunity which was captured through focus groups. Students repeatedly reported on how real the experience felt, their enhanced respect for the different professional perspectives each field brought and the need for us to develop more opportunities for learning like this within the University.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: 20th International Network for Psychiatric Nursing Research RCN Conference and Exhibition
• Start Date: Sep 18, 2014
• End Date: Sep 19, 2014
• Publication Date: Sep 19, 2014
• Journal: RCN
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: learning experiences, authentic, undergraduates, mental health students
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1434194
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : 20th International Network for Psychiatric Nursing Research RCN Conference and Exhibition