OT SIMPRAC Project

Clinical placements are a critical component of the training for health professionals such as occupational therapists. This project was developed in response to the challenges associated with finding sufficient, suitable clinical placements that satisfy program accreditation requirements, in an increasingly competitive clinical placement market.

1. To embed simulated learning methods in clinical training across six accredited occupational therapy programs in Australia and substitute 40 hours (one week block) of traditional clinical placement training time with simulated learning methods for the purposes of assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of simulated placement.        

Outcome: A one-week block of simulated clinical placement (SCP) was embedded in six occupational therapy programs across Australia. At each implementation, the SCP was compared with traditional clinical placement (TCP). Data were collected to assess the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the SCP. In total 275 SCP placements were provided for a total of 11000 hours.

2. To evaluate whether occupational therapy students achieve a statistically equivalent level of competency in placements, where placement time is replaced with simulated learning methods, compared to traditional clinical training placements.

Outcome: The findings were that a one-week 40-hour block SCP was not inferior to a one-week 40-hour block TCP to enable students to achieve designated levels of competency. There were no differences between the groups on the unit grade, or the Student Placement Evaluation Form – Revised (SPEF-R) pass rate.

3. To evaluate whether training using simulated learning methods is able to substitute for 40 hours of clinical placement and therefore potentially decrease the total occupational therapy clinical placement requirements for each student.

Outcome: Analyses of the student learning opportunities provided by the two placement types support using a short-term SCP to substitute an equivalent length TCP. The findings related to student learning outcomes support that SCPs have the potential to decrease the total external placement requirements for each student. 

The work evaluating the costs of implementing the SCP and TCP programs has indicated a complex and multifaceted picture with differences across sites and placement modes. SCP has been shown not to be inferior, but the cost data indicate that there is no simple answer as to whether SCP is less expensive than TCP.

4. To provide each occupational therapy programme with the resources, simulation scenarios, staffing experience, expertise and enthusiasm to enable training using simulated learning methods to be a sustainable clinical teaching approach into the future. 

Outcome: Each participating occupational therapy program now has the resources to implement the SCP in three placement settings (mental health, vocational rehabilitation, and physical rehabilitation). They have received staff training to implement the one-week black SCP and demonstrated staff experience, expertise and enthusiasm to embed the SCP in a sustainable manner.

Project outputs comprising resources developed to implement the 40-hour SCP are available for Australian universities to use in their own curriculum. All resources required to run the SCP can be accessed via the Health Enhance website.

Resources for SCP in the practice areas of mental health, vocational rehabilitation, and physical rehabilitation include:

• Personnel roles and responsibilities
• Schedule templates
• Detailed client cases
• Session plans
• Simulation guides
• Video resources
• Assessment processes.