Evaluating the Role of Simulation in the Clinical Education of Physiotherapy Students

Clinical simulation is well established in nursing and medical education. It provides effective learning opportunities for students to develop confidence to apply their skills in the clinical setting. Simulation in physiotherapy education is less well established. In response to the increasing number of physiotherapy programs in Australia and resultant increase demand on clinical placements, simulation has been considered as a possible solution to the increased demand by replacing part of the clinical placement time. This thesis investigates the impact of simulation on the clinical education of physiotherapy students. Mixed methods studies explore the impact of a simulation week as replacement or preparation for placement prior to physiotherapy students' first clinical placement from the perspective of students and the clinical educators supervising the students in the clinical setting. A model of simulation increasingly utilised is physiotherapy students working with standardised patients, that is actors playing the role of patients, in a realistic clinical environment. This model has been used to replace time in the clinical setting. While this model was shown to increase student confidence and preparedness to commence placement while not impacting their overall performance, clinical educators reported difficulties associated with reduced time in the clinical setting. An alternative use of simulation is to better prepare students for the clinical environment. The objective of using simulation as preparation is to bridge the gap between academic and workplace learning and potentially reduce the time required for students to transition to learning in the clinical setting. The outcome of the thesis suggests that simulation increases student confidence and prepares them to engage in elements of experiential learning that occurs on placement