Preparing Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities to Act as Simulated Patients to Enhance Clinical Communication Training in Belgium

Adults with intellectual disabilities are at increased risk of experiencing unmet health needs, underscoring the importance of improving healthcare professionals' preparedness to respond to such needs. Direct contact between healthcare professionals and patients with intellectual disabilities appears to be associated with lower social distance and more inclusive care practices. Therefore, simulation-based education involving people with intellectual disabilities may offer a promising way to prepare future professionals. Little is known, however, about how adults with intellectual disabilities can be trained to act as expert patients in such simulations. A mixed-methods study was therefore conducted to evaluate a four-session training programme in Belgium designed to prepare adults with mild-to-moderate intellectual disabilities for the expert-patient role in healthcare simulations. Quantitative measures assessed changes in participants' comfort, self-confidence, scenario-related knowledge, and role-play quality across sessions. Qualitative data were collected to explore the experiences of people with mild-to-moderate intellectual disabilities participating as expert patients in simulation-based education. Eleven participants were trained. They reported gaining confidence and feeling more comfortable in their roles as expert patients. Researcher observation corroborated these improvements, showing improvements in participants' simulation skills at the end of the training. However, knowledge of the scenario during the sessions did not improve. The qualitative results highlight four main categories: sustaining engagement in simulation-based student training, the simulation experience, the debriefing experience, and learning through repetition. These findings support the feasibility and relevance of simulated patient training for adults with mild-to-moderate intellectual disabilities. They also contribute to the scholarly documentation of this approach, which can be used to guide future initiatives aimed at training healthcare professionals.