Communication and management skills Level Up: Student confidence in transitioning from practice to placement; use of a clinical simulation environment David Hegarty, Lecturer in Physiotherapy Department of Psychology, Social Work and Allied Health Sciences | School of Health and Life Sciences | Glasgow Caledonian University Key Message Clinical simulation sessions can significantly improve student confidence in interacting with patients. A key facilitator was the real life scenarios and a barrier was not having enough time in the simulation environment 1 2 3 Student physiotherapists prefer to learn from a theoretical perspective initially, with time to review notes/theory and then to experience ‘real-life’ patient experiences 1. Transition to clinical practice can be challenging after university based theoretical learning. On first patient contact physiotherapy students reported ‘communication and management of patients’ as the main theme that they needed to reflected on 2. Clinical simulation offers a transitional format to prepare students for practice, however it is unclear how effective this is for physiotherapy students. Background Do clinical simulation experiences impact student confidence in applying skills learnt in a class environment to a new and clinically relevant environment? Aim Methods Participants: Level 2 BSc Physiotherapy students from GCU Intervention: Peer led clinical simulation based case studies with simulated patients Outcome: 1) Pre, Post Questionnaire: examining confidence of students in applying skills learnt in class was performed Pre and Post a clinical simulation environment 2) Focus Group: Nominal Group Technique (NGT) session 1 week post examining facilitators and barriers to learning within clinical simulation 4 Results J Questionnaire Focus Group (NGT) 38 students invited to focus group 7 took up offer to attend (~18% ) Single session, 1 week post 49 students invited to complete survey 38 completed (~78% RR) Single Cohort, Pre, Post Facilitators Placement specific environment Access to case studies in advance Unknown factors to examine within session Peer feedback Barriers Need more practice in real life environments More peer feedback Not enough time on activity More clinical simulation sessions Communication and management skills Establish rapport with a patient Explain my professional role to a patient Use interpersonal skills appropriately with respect to: a. Eye contact, b. Verbal speed, tone and volume, c. Language , d. Body language Conduct physical assessment Discuss management plan with a patient Select appropriate treatment techniques Apply appropriate treatment techniques Interact as a professional Ranking by % Low ranked factors Ranking by % Low ranked factors Student confidence in all 8 communication and management skills significantly improved after attending the clinical simulation environment (p < 0.01) 5 Conclusions Clinical simulation improves confidence in applying skills learnt in a class environment to a new and clinically relevant environment (p < 0.01). Key factors included peer feedback and the real life environment and scenario and the main barriers were more access to clinical simulation and peer feedback. References: 1-MOUNTFORD, H., JONES, S. and TUCKER, B., 2006. Learning styles of entry-level physiotherapy students. Advances In Physiotherapy, 8(3), pp. 128-36. 2 - LEDERGERBER, C. and BODMER, M., 2016. Students’ first contact with patients. Physiotherapy, 102 (S1) pp. e174-5. Contact Details: David Hegarty MSc by Research, BSc (Hons), MCSP, MISCP Lecturer in Physiotherapy | Department of Psychology, Social Work and Allied Health Sciences | School of Health and Life Sciences T: +44 (0)141 331 3899 | E: david.hegarty@gcu.ac.uk Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0BA, Scotland, United Kingdom University for the Common Good Figure 1: Graph of mean change in confidence related to skills.