Enhancing career development for biomedical sciences Students: Leveraging simulations to support patient-facing careers

Abstract

Simulations have become integral to medical education for professions such as nursing and medicine but are still a rare opportunity for students undertaking basic science courses including Biomedical Sciences. Many students undertaking Biomedical Sciences have a strong underlying interest in pursuing careers at the patient bedside. In this regard, Biomedical Science students often hope to secure competitive places on postgraduate courses in medicine, or physician associate studies. At the University of Salford, a significant number of students come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These students may face additional barriers to academic confidence and a sense of belonging, which can affect their ability to competitively pursue postgraduate opportunities in medicine and related fields. Providing immersive learning experiences, such as clinical simulations, can help bridge this gap by fostering essential skills, increasing confidence, and enhancing employability.

We set out to design clinical scenarios that would develop transferable skills, especially around patient consultation, teamwork and ethical decision making. Four clinical scenarios were designed and delivered in the University of Salford state-of-the-art simulations suite. Scenarios included a lung cancer patient consultation, decision making around a liver transplant dilemma, a difficult conversation with a parent regarding safeguarding concerns, and finally an escape-game style scenario involving a zombie virus infection. These scenarios involved students becoming familiar with the ethical pillars for clinical decision making, frameworks for patient consultations, and the basics of clinical observations. We evaluated the student experience using a Likert survey.

Over a two-year period, a total of 60 students took part in the extracurricular simulation, of which 31 agreed to take part in the research survey. Results showed that the experience was largely accessed by students from widening participation backgrounds. In total, 97 % had a positive learning experience, and 100 % enjoyed taking part in the clinical simulation. We found that 90 % of students felt the experience supported the development of communication skills and teamwork, whilst 84 % reported improved employability. Furthermore, 90 % of students in this study would like to see simulation experiences embedded into their programme of study, and 91 % thought that simulations were better than traditional dyadic styles.

Collectively, these results point to the successful design and delivery of an extracurricular simulated experience and provide evidence to support the need to embed immersive simulated experiences into the curriculum of Biomedical Sciences courses.