Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Students in Action: Collaborative Clinical Simulations

To evaluate the attitudes of health science students towards interprofessional learning within the context of clinical simulations.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, an interprofessional clinical simulation was conducted with undergraduate students from the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy programmes at the Faculty of Health and Welfare, University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). The simulation focused on the safe and rehabilitative management of patients, is part of the RENE project (https://mon.uvic.cat/m3o/rene-project/), which aims to improve and unify patient management training in the healthcare sector. This topic is integrated into the modules on Activities of Daily Living and Physiotherapy in Geriatrics. Student attitudes towards interprofessional learning were measured using the Spanish version of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS). A descriptive, cross-sectional design was utilised for this study.

Eight students participated in the simulation (3 from Occupational Therapy and 5 from Physiotherapy), with a mean age of 27.2 years. The RIPLS results revealed a score of 53.5/55 for teamwork and collaboration, 17.4/40 for professional identity and roles, and 23.6/25 for a person-centred approach.

The RIPLS findings demonstrated a strong readiness for interprofessional learning among the students, particularly in the areas of teamwork, collaboration, and person-centred care. Professional identity is a dimension that needs to be improved. Future research, with larger samples, is necessary to be able to draw solid conclusions.

The project arises from the need for the training of future healthcare professionals to respond to the current context, in which the healthcare and social care model is increasingly shifting towards a more integrated and person-centred approach. This shift means that user care must be delivered through the work of more diverse professional teams (physiotherapists, psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, occupational therapists, physicians, speech therapists, etc.). This explains why, in both public and private sectors (according to the AQU Report, 2020), the ability to work in interprofessional teams is among the most highly valued competencies for health and social professionals. For this reason, it is essential that the training provided to the university students equips them with the skills necessary for interprofessional collaboration.