Our professional health and social care programmes support students to develop and practice skills without the immediate pressure of being in a practice setting. Service users and carers are involved across programmes to provide realistic simulation or role play activities for students to practice a range of skills and receive immediate feedback from people who are experts by experience.
Examples include:
- Assessed role plays in social work courses, where students are required to conduct a mock home visit and break some difficult news to a service user or carer such as them leaving; a service coming to an end; or a care provider changing. At the end of the role play, students have the opportunity to discuss their ‘performance’ with an observer and the service user in order to develop their practice.
- In adult nursing courses, students are required to conduct a mock handover at the bedside of a patient in a simulated hospital ward at the university.