In last month's issue, my colleague Alison Power welcomed students embarking on their midwifery journey and emphasised the growing need for interprofessional collaboration. The importance of midwives at all levels learning and collaborating with fellow professionals cannot be overstated, and creating learning environments that offer dynamic, authentic and engaging experiences is a challenge that educators must meet.
In my role as Director of Interprofessional Education, I am committed to growing the opportunities available for healthcare students to come together and learn ‘with, from and about’ one another (Centre for the Advancement of Inter-Professional Education, 2016). For the past few years, work has been underway in growing interprofessional simulation-based education across professions at Northumbria University. Last year, we brought year 2 student midwives together with final year medical students from Newcastle University for 3 days of interprofessional simulation-based education, with great results.
Delivered in a purpose-built clinical skills centre, with hi-fidelity mannequins and mock up maternity wards and delivery rooms, midwifery and medical facilitators came together to offer four scenarios of pregnancy and childbirth emergencies. Faculty worked together to write the scenarios, ensuring that they provided ample opportunity for the midwifery and medical students to practice their skills and work together as a team in managing these situations.
This approach to learning was delivered to 120 students (60 medical and 60 midwifery) and provided a dynamic and engaging experience, fostering a deeper understanding of respective roles, responsibilities and contributions. Through shared learning experiences, students gain insights into various aspects of care, from recognition, assessment and pathophysiology, as well as emotional and social support needs (Sanko, 2020).
Throughout the pre-brief and de-brief the principles of interprofessional working were demonstrated and emphasised. Students need to be able to relate this teamworking to practice. Integrating lessons learned from reports such as Ockenden in relation to interprofessional working and what happens when professionals fail to collaborate effectively, will bring the scenarios and the learning overall to life.
Our initiative was evaluated extremely positively by students and it is anticipated that this will be repeated in the next academic year. Integrating interprofessional simulation into curriculums may seem like a mammoth task, but with thought and planning can be delivered safely and effectively with students, staff and future maternity service users reaping the benefits. Higher education institutions delivering healthcare programmes can better prepare their students to navigate the complexities of modern healthcare environments and collaborative working through interprofessional simulation-based education. Care is safer and of higher quality where professionals work together, and starting at pre-registration level is imperative to embed these principles from the onset.