Horstmanshof Louise, Lingard Robert G, Coetzee Sonja, Waddell Louise P
School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, 2480 NSW Australia.
Adv Simul (Lond). 2016 Apr 2;1:11. doi: 10.1186/s41077-016-0012-3. eCollection 2016.
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.
在本文中，我们报告了一系列临床运动生理学专业学生在基于模拟的教育环境中与年长的独立成年人进行实习的情况。这些实习机会的目的是帮助学生做好准备，以便在初级医疗保健环境中自信且胜任地与老年人合作。通过对学生、他们的导师以及志愿者患者进行半结构化访谈，并分析学生书面反思作业的内容，来衡量这些实习的效果。采用了一种结合了定向内容分析（由研究目标指导并应用于数据）和传统内容分析（从数据中浮现的主题中开发代码）的方法。编码基于意义单元。总体而言，实习目标得以实现。学生们表示在与老年人沟通以及使用他们的专业工具方面信心有所增强。这种基于模拟的创新教育体验帮助学生理解了他们正在形成的职业身份。然而，数据显示一些学生在与老年人合作时仍然未能认识到沟通的价值和重要性。老年人表示他们喜欢与学生互动，并认为他们帮助学生对老年人的认知和身体能力有了积极的印象。这些老年人也对运动生理学对自身健康的益处有了更深入的了解。本文展示了在培养医护人员方面引入社区支持的益处，并为复制这些基于模拟的创新教育体验提供了指导方针。本文仅限于报告对老年人的社会和社区参与益处以及临床运动生理学专业学生的学习机会。需要进一步的研究来证明参与此类项目的老年人的健康收益。
