Developing a Simulated-Person Methodology Workshop: An Experiential Education Initiative for Educators and Simulators

Abstract

Numerous forecasts suggest that professional-competence development depends on human encounters. Interaction between organizations, tasks, and individual providers influence human behaviour, affect organizations’ or systems’ performance, and are a key component of professional-competence development. Further, insufficient or ineffective communication between professionals is deemed a contributing factor to adverse events worldwide. This underscores the need to provide educators with the tools and education to embed methods in their teaching that will enable learners to effectively intervene in highly charged interpersonal situations and high-risk scenarios; these concerns highlight the value of realistic simulated-experiential approaches, such as the one proposed in this project.  The first phase of this project involved conducting a three-day experiential workshop developed at a Canadian university to provide educators with knowledge and skills to work and effectively utilize simulators, enhancing pedagogical classroom practices for teaching undergraduate learners. This workshop’s development resulted in numerous benefits. Participation in the workshop provided educators with opportunities for meaningful reflection on their teaching practice and the ability to apply this insight to optimize student learning. It provided theatre students, recruited as simulators as part of this interdisciplinary initiative, to expand their experiences and this will lead to an expanded practicum course for their program.  There is now a group of simulators available to educators across the university to include in classroom activities, and lastly there are further iterations of this workshop available for faculty development. This paper reflects on the workshop experiences and the feedback obtained from the participants. Formal and informal feedback obtained provides an understanding of the participants’ experiences.