Conectar
The aim of this discussion paper is to explore whether recontextualisation theory deepens our understanding of learning across multiple sites when introducing simulation-based education (SBE) into nurse education.
The requirement for students to learn in clinical placements remains an aspiration as well as a regulatory requirement internationally. Yet, the increasing complexity of healthcare and the numbers of vacancies in the healthcare workforce globally have led to poor learning environments. In the context of faster internet speeds, rapid development in virtual technologies, affordability of hardware, and the move to online educational provision after the COVID-19 pandemic, SBE has emerged as a key teaching method in health professional preparation programmes globally.
Critical discussion paper.
This discussion paper is based on current literature on SBE and recontextualisation theory.
Evaluations of SBE often show positive outcomes for learning in nurse education. Weaknesses and gaps in the evidence on SBE, such as the scarcity of control groups or longitudinal studies, have been identified. Using recontextualization theory, we argue that SBE may also increase the theory-practice split for students across multiple sites of learning.
The introduction of SBE offers supplementary positive learning opportunities to those in clinical practice while at the same time creating multiple sites of learning which are not always aligned. More needs to be done to teach from a curriculum which relies on students being motivated and able to learn across multiple sites of learning.
To support student nurses in UG professional preparation programmes which rely on SBE as well as clinical practice and universities, shared values between nurse educators and clinical nurses need to be enacted collaboratively. This could be achieved by reframing how students and nurses learn and rework knowledge across sites of learning.
To discuss inter-organisational collaboration in the context of the successful COVID-19 vaccination programme in North Central London (NCL).
An action research study in 2023–2024.
Six action research cycles used mixed qualitative methods.
Four findings are presented which illustrate inter-organisational collaboration across professional and organisational boundaries: working in the action research group, learning to work as an action research group, working collaboratively in new ways, working outside professional, occupational and organisational silos. These themes are discussed in relation to the literature on interprofessional and inter-organisational collaboration.
The COVID-19 vaccination programme offered a way out of the pandemic. Between December 2020 and February 2022, 2.8 M people were vaccinated by the NCL Vaccination team in an example of inter-organisational collaboration between science, health and community. Staff on the vaccination programme worked inter-organisationally in new ways to achieve this. In NCL several thousand local residents joined the NHS to work with healthcare professionals including nurses, nursing associates and students to deliver the programme in new ways which are illustrative of inter-organisational collaboration.
No PPI within this study.
The implications for the profession and for healthcare organisations of the findings are that, in contrast to traditional ways of working which have been entrenched in silos of professional knowledge and expertise, health professionals are able to work in new ways and find inter-organisational work satisfying. This has implications for patients as it has the potential to improve communication between very different organisations and as the vaccination programme shows, results in successful public health vaccination rates.
This study set out to create a public resource for learning (for future pandemics or other works of national effort) to commemorate the collaborative efforts of the diverse vaccination workforce and volunteers involved in the programme. Participation in the COVID-19 vaccination programme had a profound effect on NHS clinical and professional staff, on partners across business and volunteer organisation in North Central London and on volunteers from the public in North Central London. Inter-organisation collaboration has been sustained after the delivery of the vaccination programme in North Central London; innovative ways of working have been introduced in the local community to deliver ongoing vaccinations and wider prevention activities and the partnership between academia and clinical practice. The research findings have had an impact on the research participants and the wider public through the website created as a public resource to commemorate the COVID-19 vaccination programme in North Central London.
The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies (COREQ) was used as a guide throughout data collection and analysis.
The public were involved as participants in this study. They did not participate in the study design.
FreshRSS