Key themes: Education (training, assessment, curriculum), Skill acquisition, Interprofessional collaboration

Academics:

• Miss Sharad Rayamahji, Registered Nurse, PhD student, Edinburgh Napier University, sharad.rayamajhi@napier.ac.uk
• Dr. Ruth Paterson, Associate Professor, Edinburgh Napier University
• Dr. Amani Al Bakraydar, Lecturer, Edinburgh Napier University
• Dr. Amanda McLean, Pharmacist and Associate Lecturer, Edinburgh Napier University

Aims & Objectives:

Medication errors continue to pose a serious threat to patient safety, resulting in mild to severe adverse events, including mortality. Medication safety during care transitions and the management of polypharmacy are key priorities of the World Health Organisation’s Third Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm (Donaldson et al., 2017). The aim of this project was to develop a SimMed, an interprofessional digital simulation designed to address these priorities by providing students with experiential learning that replicates the complexity of real clinical settings.

Details:

Informed by a recent systematic review and a needs assessment, SimMed was developed using Agile methodology and aligned with the Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™(INACSL Standards Committee, 2021; Laoyan, 2024; Rayamajhi et al., 2024). An interprofessional steering group guided its design to enhance nursing proficiency in medication safety, optimisation, and prescribing preparedness.

SimMed featured a case of a 60-year-old woman recovering from myocardial infarction and angioplasty, prescribed multiple new medicines. It comprised the following two parts (~30 minutes)
Part 1 – Nurse Station: Learners engaged in interprofessional communication, identified prescription errors, conducted medicine reconciliation, and escalated issues appropriately.
Part 2 – Patient Bay: Learners provided discharge advice, explained side effects, discussed drug interactions, and advised on medication adjustments during acute illness to prevent complications.

A key feature was the interprofessional debriefing, co-facilitated by a non-medical prescriber and a nurse, with pharmacist input via video. The PEARL framework was used to structure reflection and learning (Eppich & Cheng, 2015).

Impacts

SimMed was successfully designed, implemented, and delivered to pre-registration nursing students. It was found to be cost-effective, compatible with existing systems, user-friendly, and engaging. Its adaptable structure supported intended learning outcomes and enriched the student experience. A standardised framework, iterative refinement, and learner feedback were central to its effectiveness.

Formal evaluation of student-specific outcomes and structured facilitator feedback is ongoing within a wider study. Preliminary verbal facilitator feedback highlighted its effectiveness in supporting learning, relevance to curriculum integration, and value in strengthening interprofessional education and patient safety.

The study shows that adapting evidence-based, structured, and agile development processes can be effective in developing educational simulations that are transferable to diverse healthcare training contexts. Interprofessional collaboration during design and delivery enhanced authenticity, aligning with real-world practice and promoting teamwork.

SimMed offers a scalable model for digital simulation in medication optimisation, aligned with global patient safety priorities.

Next Steps

Planned developments include:

1. Expanding to interprofessional multiuser simulations to simulate realistic team-based practice.
2. Embedding the simulation into curricula as a spiral, scaffolded learning experience.
3. Continuing evaluation as part of a longitudinal convergent mixed-methods study to assess impact on students’ knowledge, confidence, satisfaction, and learning effectiveness.