Simulating practice education – what should we simulate?

With the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic stretching placement capacity to its limits (RCOT, 2021), simulating placements appears to be a logical solution. 40 hours of simulated practice are now permitted by RCOT as part of the 1000 hours overall practice requirement (RCOT, 2019), and some guidance on how to ensure that such placements are of sufficiently high quality has been offered by colleagues overseas (Occupational Therapy Council of Australia, 2020).

However, the body of research into the effectiveness of simulated placements is small (Grant and Thomas, 2021), with no consideration to which aspects of placement should be simulated. To inform the effective development of simulated placements, this study aimed to find out what students really learn on their first practice placement, which may not be reflected in the prescribed intended learning outcomes.

Using grounded theory methodology and constant comparative analysis following ethical approval, first-year pre-registration occupational therapy students and practice educators have been interviewed to determine what they believe is learned during the first placement. Early results of this ongoing study suggest four core categories of learning, which are co-dependent and impact on one other, and are being developed to propose a theory of placement learning that can be employed to enable educators to consider the parameters and purpose of simulated placements.

Later stages of this study will site this theory within existing educational theory and seek to make recommendations to help students and educators maximize learning opportunities in both traditional and simulated placements.