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Clinical exercise physiology students learning with older adults - an innovative simulation-based education programme1.01 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Clinical exercise physiology students learning with older adults: an innovative simulation-based education programme
Advances in Simulation, Vol.1, pp.1-10
2016
PMCID: PMC5806354
PMID: 29449980
Abstract
In this paper, we report on a series of placements for clinical exercise physiology students in a simulation-based education environment with older, independent adults. The purpose of these placement opportunities was to help prepare students to work confidently and competently with older adults in primary healthcare settings. The effectiveness of these placements was measured through semi-structured interviews with the students, their supervisors and the volunteer patients, and also by analysing the content of the students' written reflection assignments. A combination of directed content analysis, informed by the research objectives and imposed upon the data, and conventional content analysis, in which codes were developed from themes emerging from the data, was adopted. Coding was based on units of meaning. Overall, the placement aims were met. Students reported increased confidence in communicating with older adults and in using the tools of their trade. This innovative simulation-based education experience helped students gain an understanding of their developing professional identities. However, the data show that some students still failed to recognise the value and importance of communication when working with older adults. The older adults reported that they enjoyed interacting with the students and believed that they had helped the students gain a positive impression of the cognitive and physical abilities of older adults. These older adults had also gained insight into the benefits of exercise physiology in terms of their own wellbeing. This paper demonstrates the benefits of engaging community support in developing healthcare workers and provides guidelines for replication of these innovative simulation-based education experiences. The paper is limited to reporting the social and community engagement benefits for older adults and the learning opportunities for the clinical exercise physiology students. Further research is needed to demonstrate the health gains for older adults who participate in such programmes.
Details
- Title
- Clinical exercise physiology students learning with older adults: an innovative simulation-based education programme
- Authors
- Louise Horstmanshof (Author) - Southern Cross UniversityRobert G Lingard (Author) - Southern Cross UniversitySonja Coetzee (Author) - Southern Cross UniversityLouise P Waddell (Author) - Southern Cross University
- Publication details
- Advances in Simulation, Vol.1, pp.1-10
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- Date published
- 2016
- DOI
- 10.1186/s41077-016-0012-3
- ISSN
- 2059-0628
- PMID
- 29449980; PMC5806354
- Copyright note
- © 2016 Horstmanshof et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health and Sport Sciences - Legacy; School of Health - Sports & Exercise Science; School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99521808002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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