Interprofessional Simulation Learning With Nursing and Pharmacy Students: A Qualitative Study

Student summary

Why This Research Matters

Health science students increasingly practice their skills in simulated situations, but usually they do so only within their own discipline. Learning together across professions in simulation, called interprofessional simulation learning, or ISL, happens less often and has rarely been studied. This qualitative study, published in Quality Advancement in Nursing Education in 2014, explored what a small group of undergraduate nursing and pharmacy students thought about learning together in simulation. Because good patient care so often depends on different professions working as a team, understanding how students learn to collaborate is an important educational question.

The study included nine students: five nursing students and four pharmacy students. The researchers wanted to understand three things about their experience. First, how did ISL contribute to discipline-specific learning, meaning what students learned about their own profession's knowledge and skills. Second, how did it help them learn about the other profession. Third, how did it contribute to the development of interprofessional skills, the abilities needed to communicate and work effectively across professional lines. The students took part in three ISL activities, and the researchers gathered data in several ways: by observing the simulation sessions, conducting individual interviews, and keeping field notes. This use of multiple data sources is a strength in qualitative research because it allows a fuller picture. The data were then examined using content analysis, a method for systematically identifying themes and patterns in what people say and do.

The findings were consistently positive. Students described the ISL activities as a positive learning experience overall. A notable theme was that students learned how their professional cultures connected, gaining insight into how nursing and pharmacy each contribute to patient care and how their roles fit together. The students also reported that the activities contributed to feeling pride in their chosen profession, suggesting that learning alongside another discipline can strengthen, rather than threaten, a student's own professional identity. Perhaps most striking, many stereotypical perceptions about the other profession dissipated. In other words, assumptions or misconceptions that nursing students held about pharmacy, and that pharmacy students held about nursing, tended to fade after working together in simulation.

The authors conclude that these positive outcomes have significant implications for curriculum content development and program delivery. If learning together can build mutual understanding, professional pride, and reduced stereotyping, then educators have good reason to design more interprofessional simulation into health science programs. This connects to a broader movement in health education toward interprofessional education, which is built on the idea that professionals who learn together are better prepared to work together and, ultimately, to serve patients well.

For students and educators, several lessons stand out. First, simulation is not only a place to rehearse technical skills; it can also be a space to build teamwork and understanding across professions. Second, direct contact and shared tasks appear to be powerful ways to break down stereotypes, a finding that resonates with wider evidence on how working together reduces bias. Third, interprofessional learning can reinforce a student's own identity while opening their eyes to what colleagues contribute. These insights are valuable in any field where teams share responsibility for care.

It is essential to read this study with its limits clearly in mind. The sample was very small, just nine students in total, and the study captured their perceptions rather than measuring changes in behavior or patient outcomes. Qualitative studies like this one are designed to explore experiences in depth, not to prove that ISL causes specific results or to show how common these views are among all students. The findings come from one program at one point in time and reflect the particular activities the students experienced. Because of this, the results are best understood as encouraging, transferable insights that can inform teaching and inspire further research, rather than as definitive proof. Even so, the study makes a thoughtful contribution to a topic that was rarely investigated at the time, and its themes, that students value learning together, connect their professional cultures, feel pride, and let go of stereotypes, offer practical direction for anyone designing collaborative health education today.

Faculty notes

Educational Relevance

This 2014 study is a useful teaching resource for interprofessional education, simulation pedagogy, and qualitative methods. Use it to introduce interprofessional simulation learning (ISL) and the rationale that professionals who learn together are better prepared to work together. Methodologically, it models a small qualitative design with triangulated data collection, observation of simulation sessions, individual interviews, and field notes, analyzed with content analysis; this is a good springboard for teaching how multiple data sources strengthen credibility. The four themes, that students found ISL a positive learning experience, saw how their professional cultures connected, felt pride in their chosen profession, and had many stereotypes about the other profession dissipate, give students concrete outcomes to discuss and map onto interprofessional competency frameworks. Ask learners to design an ISL activity for nursing and another discipline and predict which stereotypes it might address. The very small sample (five nursing and four pharmacy students) is an excellent prompt for teaching the appropriate use and limits of qualitative research: it explores perceptions in depth but cannot establish prevalence, behavior change, or patient outcomes. Note that the record's broad topic tags do not reflect a mental-health focus; the study is about interprofessional simulation, so use it to teach collaboration skills that underpin safe care in any specialty, including mental health, rather than as mental-health content. Close by connecting the curriculum implications to program-level planning.