An exploration of the role of simulation in interprofessional education within health professions education

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE), defined as occasions when “two or more professions learn with, from and about each other”, is a cornerstone of modern health education. It develops collaborative practice skills, enhances communication and supports effective teamwork across health professions. Simulation-based education (SBE), including high-fidelity simulation (HFS) and virtual reality (VR), has emerged as a key modality for delivering IPE, providing learners with opportunities for deliberate practice in safe and controlled environments. Evidence demonstrates that interprofessional simulation can improve communication, teamwork, professional role clarity, collaboration, self-efficacy and flatten hierarchical structures. Moreover, recent scoping reviews indicate long-term improvements in interprofessional capabilities among new graduates, ultimately contributing to better patient care outcomes. Despite these benefits, undergraduate integration of IPE and simulation remains inconsistent and many institutions struggle with systematic implementation.

Although literature highlights the promise of IPE simulation, significant gaps remain in understanding how best to embed it into undergraduate health curricula. Recent systematic and scoping reviews have shown a limited number of studies meeting inclusion criteria (10 and 12, respectively), underscoring the scarcity of rigorous evidence on effective strategies for integration. Challenges persist around faculty readiness, strategic management, resource allocation and the incorporation of emerging technologies such as VR. Furthermore, while learners demonstrate acceptance of VR as an educational tool, there is limited research on faculty perspectives, implementation barriers and the development of sustainable, institution-wide strategies for IPE and SBE. This highlights the need for structured, evidence-informed approaches to guide adoption at scale.

This doctoral research addresses these gaps by investigating the feasibility of integrating IPE and simulation, including VR, into undergraduate health curricula through a series of five interlinked studies. The thesis combines systematic and scoping reviews to map existing evidence; qualitative study to identify barriers and enablers; application studies exploring learner experiences with VR using the technology acceptance model (TAM), love/breakup letter methodology (LBM) and focus groups (FG); and a Delphi study to generate consensus-based IPE and SBE strategies. The findings highlight learners’ acceptance of VR, reveal faculty concerns and enablers, and ultimately establish 28 IPE strategies and 39 SBE strategies through consensus, with 90% overall agreement. This work demonstrates that embedding IPE simulation into undergraduate health education is feasible and valuable, though challenges of logistics, operations and resources remain. By providing a robust set of evidence-informed strategies, this thesis offers practical and innovative pathways to support the sustainable integration of IPE and simulation into curricula, preparing future health graduates for collaborative, team-based care.