"If You've Trained, Then It's Much Easier"-Health Care Professionals' Experiences of Participating in Simulation

Background: The aim of the study was to explore health care professionals' experiences of participating in simulation-based training (SBT). Methods: Individual semistructured interviews were conducted at two in-house training centres with 23 health care professionals representing different occupations, such as midwives, assistant nurses, registered nurses, and physicians among others. The data were analysed by thematic analysis. Results: Five main themes emerged: Being able to grow in one's professional role, Coming together is fun, isn't it?, Being helped with a structured approach, Learning from feedback , and Creating the best out of (sur)realism . Overall, the health care professionals experienced SBT as positive, valuable, and as providing learning opportunities. Conversely, they expressed difficulties in communication and providing/receiving feedback, in particular when they were not known to the group or were less experienced in SBT. Conclusions: SBT allows health care professionals to improve not only in the SBT process but also prepares them for clinical practice and to develop their communication and teamwork skills. Cite this article: Schmidt, M., et al. (Year, Month). "If you've trained, then it's much easier"-Health care professionals' experiences of participating in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing , vol(no.), eXXX-eXXX. doi: 10.1016/j.ecsn.20XX. Cite this article: Schmidt, M., Berndtzon, M. & Nichitelea, D. (2024, Month). "If You've Trained, Then It's Much Easier"- Health Care Professionals' Experiences of Participating in Simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing , 87, (c) 2023 International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning. Published by This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )