A21 A Qualitative Exploration of Physiotherapy Students’ Opinions of Simulation and the Impact of Acting Students as Standardised Patients

Introduction: Simulation within physiotherapy education, is effective in developing many essential clinical and professional skills [1]. Standardised patients (SPs) help create high fidelity scenarios reflecting real-world environments, enabling students to practice person-centred care, communication skills and empathy, alongside hands-on clinical techniques [1]. The cost of hiring external actors, however, is one of the biggest barriers faced by Higher Education faculty staff [2]. While peer-peer simulation has been shown to be effective [1], our own experiences demonstrated a reluctance for many students to take on a performance role. Collaborative discussions with the university Acting programme highlighted several mutual benefits if the non-medically trained acting students were able to portray realistic patients and the physiotherapy students could ‘buy into’ character age differences. Maintaining psychological safety was also a priority. This phenomenological study aimed to explore students’ perceptions of simulated learning, and the impact acting student SPs had on the learning experience. As qualitative methodologies are poorly represented in physiotherapy education simulation literature, a second aim was to add depth to our current knowledge. Methods: 70 physiotherapy students undertook a day of simulated learning in the University simulation wards. In groups of 6, students either led or observed 2 scenarios. 4 SPs of varying ages and medical presentations were portrayed by student actors, none of whom had previously been involved in simulation. A short training seminar helped the actors with clinical presentations. Following the simulation, all students were invited to participate in online focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data [3]. Results: 13 students participated in 3 focus groups. Physiotherapy participants reported the simulation supported the development of many skills including clinical reasoning, independent thinking, problem solving and teamworking. Although stressful, the simulation felt safe. It was an enjoyable and valuable learning experience. The acting students’ realistic portrayal of patients enhanced the session, and the physiotherapy students reported quickly ‘buying into’ patient characters, irrespective of the acting students’ age. Patient perspective feedback was particularly helpful, even though acting participants reported they found this aspect challenging. Acting participants also felt the simulation experience enabled them to create different, emotional characters and use improvisation skills to challenge the physiotherapy students as the scenarios developed (Table 1). Discussion: Results of this study add depth to the literature on simulation in physiotherapy education. It supports the use of acting students as SPs, offering an effective and cost-effective alternative to professional actors. Ethics Statement: As the submitting author, I can confirm that all relevant ethical standards of research and dissemination have been met. Additionally, I can confirm that the necessary ethical approval has been obtained, where applicable. References 1. Lowe CM, Heneghan N, Herbland A, Atkinson K, Beeton K. KNOWBEST: The KNOWledge, BEhaviours and Skills required of the modern physiotherapy graduate including the future role of practice based learning. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy; 2022. 2. O’Shea O, Mulhall C, Condron C, McDonough S, Larkin J, Eppich W. A qualitative study of physiotherapy educators’ views and experience of practice education and simulation-based learning. 2023. International Journal of Healthcare Simulation. https://ijohs.com/article/doi/10.54531/HKOI8650 3. Braun V, Clarke V. Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. 7 ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publications; 2022. Supporting Documents – Table 1-A21 Themes identified through thematic analysis.