Continuing professional development: pedagogical practices of interprofessional simulation in health care

ABSTRACT

The increasing complexity of health care practice makes continuing professional development (CPD) essential for health care professionals. Simulation-based training is a CPD activity that is often applied to improve interprofessional collaboration and the quality of care. The aim of this study is to explore simulation as a pedagogical practice for the CPD of health care professionals. Specifically, the study focuses on how a professional development activity, the simulation, is enacted to support interprofessional collaboration and learning. A practice theory perspective is used as the theoretical framework. In this, the professional practice is conceptualised as being embodied, relational and situated in sociomaterial arrangements. Ten introduction and reflection sessions following interprofessional full-scale manikin-based simulations with professionals were video-recorded. The recordings were analysed following a stepwise qualitative collaborative approach developed for the purpose. The key findings suggest that the professional competence activity is enacted and interconnected with and governed by historical traditions of institutional teaching practices as well as simulation practices. Despite the intentions of team and interprofessional training, the institutional teaching and simulation practices constrain and hinder the intended outcomes of professional development in interprofessional collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuing professional development
• healthcare
• interprofessional collaboration
• simulation
• practice theory
• qualitative video analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Swedish Research Council for funding of the SIMIPL project, and the partners at Göteborg University and the Karolinska Institutet for collecting and sharing the data analysed in this paper. We would also wish to thank simulator instructors and professionals that participated in the study as well as the simulation centres that facilitated data gathering and welcomed the researchers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sofia Nyström, PhD, is Senior lecturer in Education, at the Department of Behavior Sciences and Learning, Linköping University. Research interests concern professional and vocational learning in different contexts such as health care and medical education, vocational education and work life in general. She has a special interest in simulation-based training, supervision and professional identity formation.

Johanna Dahlberg, PhD, is Senior lecturer in Clinical chemistry. Director of Studies and manager of the IPE curriculum between 2008 and 2014 at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Linköping University. She is currently the IPE coordinator. She is board member of the Nordic network for interprofessional network, Nipnet, and delegate in the World coordinating committee WCC for interprofessional education and practice.

Samuel Edelbring, PhD, is an educational researcher in health professions education. He has published on learning strategies and course integration in relation to computerised virtual patients and simulation-based learning. He is director of the clinical skills and simulation centre Clinicum at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden. He is Affiliated researcher at the Department of LIME, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

Håkan Hult, Associate professor in Education, has during several years been a visiting professor in medical education at Karolinska Institutet. His research interest concern simulation, IPL and pedagogical processes in health care.

Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren is Professor in Medical Education at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences in Linköping. Research interests concern professional learning and pedagogical processes within the sociomaterial practices of health care and medical education, such as interprofessional learning, simulation-based medical education and patient learning.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Swedish Research Council.