On April 12th, we delivered something I feel genuinely proud of: a large-scale interprofessional ward-round simulation that brought together first-year students from Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Social Work, and Nursing. It wasn’t just another tick-box exercise in clinical education. It was immersive, deliberate, and anchored in a shared purpose—to give students a visceral sense of what it means to step into their professional identity in the pressurised, often messy, environment of a hospital ward.
We designed the simulation without requiring clinical pre-requisites beyond a basic understanding of one’s professional role. The goal wasn’t to test knowledge but to stretch non-technical competencies—communication, leadership, decision-making, situational awareness, and mental resilience. These often-overlooked skills can so easily determine the quality of team functioning and, by extension, patient care.
The activity ran across two simulation suites: one configured as a live ward, complete with ambient sounds, ward boards, and SMOTS camera surveillance to enhance realism; the other served as an observation hub. In each session, learners engaged in a facilitated ward-round discussion based on prepared handover sheets. There were no simulated patients—just professionals-in-training navigating complexity together.
There was a palpable sense of engagement throughout. Learners reflected on the authenticity of the environment and, more importantly, on the authenticity of their responses to it. Many commented on how it felt to “represent their profession” for the first time—an identity shift that simulation, more than any lecture or seminar, has the power to catalyse.
It reminded me why we invest in simulation. Not because it replicates reality perfectly, but because it reveals the human dimensions of professional practice: the nerves, the negotiations, the moments of uncertainty and resolve. These are the things we rarely teach explicitly, yet they’re often what matter most.
As an educator and co-facilitator, watching 140 students move through that space—tentative at first, then gradually more assured—was deeply affirming. We offered them a space not just to learn about interprofessional practice but to inhabit it, however briefly. And in doing so, I think we helped them start becoming the professionals they are training to be.
Dean Walker 