Sonography students’ experiences with simulation-based learning as a form of clinical teaching at a higher academic institution

Abstract

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an important tool used in healthcare education to replicate a particular clinical scenario as closely as possible in a controlled, safe-space environment without any harm or health risk to patients (Alinier et al., 2004; Hazell et al., 2020). SBL, prior to interacting with real patients, can form an important component for sonography students to develop into skilled sonographers (Gibbs, 2015). Ultrasound simulation is well established in the developed world; however, it is relatively new to South Africa. Despite the introduction of SBL into the curriculum half a decade ago at our higher academic institution in the Western Cape, South Africa, no research had been done to explore the students’ experience of using such a teaching tool. An exploratory, qualitative, and descriptive research study was conducted in 2020 to explore and describe BSc second-year sonography students’ experiences of using simulation, prior to patient interaction, within the South African context. Ethical approval was obtained: CPUT/HW-REC2020/H10. One-on-one interviews were conducted with eight BSc second-year sonography students involved with SBL in their BSc first year of study. The interview questions were semi-structured and were done virtually online during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. The research study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 explored and described the sonography students’ experiences using tissue equivalent phantom simulators. In phase 2, guidelines were developed to enhance sonography training in South Africa. A thematic analysis was utilized to describe the data and three themes emerged from the study: enhancing preparedness for the clinical environment; limitations of the tissue-equivalent phantom and suggestions for the improvement of simulation learning. The participants were very keen and shared all their experiences using simulation. The researcher found that although there was positive feedback of enjoyment using the simulation tool, limitations were also raised. The major limitations included that the simulator lacked realism and was unable to replicate sub-optimal conditions normally encountered while scanning real patients. Guidelines and recommendations to enhance sonography training with regards to students’ preparedness for the clinical environment, bridging the lack of realism and suggestions for improvement of simulation could be developed.