Catherine Teare, School of Nursing, CoHM*
Romany Martin, School of Health Sciences, CoHM
Jessica Lawton, School of Nursing, CoHM
Marie-Louise Bird, School of Health Sciences, CoHM
Aitor Boanza, School of Nursing, CoHM
A new collaboration has developed between nursing and physiotherapy through shared low-technology, high-fidelity simulation. Starting organically in the nursing simulation laboratory, a senior physiotherapy lecturer was impressed by what they witnessed during a final year nursing simulation that explored the phases of acute patient deterioration. The senior lecturer contacted nursing staff, and we collectively knew that there was collaborative potential that was not being tapped into.
Under the same College of Health and Medicine, we have the avenues to connect; but, working in demanding degrees, have historically worked separately. However, we want to change this through collaboration, connection, curriculum, creation and collegiality. The additional benefit of collaborative practice in the form of simulation is the establishment of facilitated partnership between students of both disciplines.
Disciplines that work closely together, particularly in acute care, can learn together through interprofessional education. There is a growing body of evidence that explores the working relationship between nurses and physiotherapists, and we would like to better realise this within our curriculum through simulation.
The focus of our simulation was to better understand each discipline’s role in discharge planning and promote interprofessional learning/education. Fundamentally we care for the same patients, in the same places and share goals. Therefore, each other’s perspective can work in a complimentary manner to optimise patients’ health outcomes. Our first collaborative simulation took place in September 2023, which we are now evaluating to explore the barriers, enablers and benefits.