Accelerating through the Novice-Expert Continuum: Does Learning in Simulated Environments Enhance Procedural Knowledge and Therefore Care?

The process of learning to become a healthcare professional means to be able to apply knowledge and skills to a ‘real life’ situation with a patient, or other service user in an attempt to improve care, treatment or outcome. However, there are challenges in providing contextual learning to healthcare students such as, reduced capacity in clinical placements, increases in workflow and the changing needs of learners and patients. Learning clinical skills on patients is often opportunistic, inequitable and arguably unethical. Simulation has been heralded as a pedagogy that supports the realistic application of knowledge by enabling contextual learning in a safe environment. There are debates regarding the effectiveness and ability for deliberate practice in simulation to transfer to clinical intervention. Furthermore, transference of learned skills and knowledge in simulation into effective care of patients in an environment with real safety issues, is disputable. Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to: Present data from a mixed methods study that investigated the lived experiences of healthcare students in relation to developing procedural knowledge in simulation and applying that knowledge clinically Discuss the use of innovative pedagogies such as simulation and virtual reality to augment traditional teaching and learning strategie