Upskilling care workers via a simulated home care environment
Research shows that homecare staff often feel unprepared to deal with complex situations.
Training for carers who will be working in people’s homes is often theory-based, with limited opportunity to practice skills in real life. Simulated training environments could be the answer, boosting staff skills and client safety.
Research goals
The SimEdCare research project aims to explore the use of simulation-based education to upskill the care sector, equipping home care workers with the range of skills and capabilities they will need to provide high-quality care.
Team and collaborators
SimEdCare is a collaborative project between Health Sciences University (HSU) and GoodOaks Homecare, a home care provider based in Dorset and the south of England.
The HSU team consists of Dr Michelle Holmes, Gary Francis, Dr Claire Nadaf and Matthew Lofthouse, alongside Jess Burt and Edit Bertalan from GoodOaks.
Key findings / progress
For our research we constructed an activity suite representing daily living, including a kitchen, living room, sleeping area and fully functioning bathroom, and featuring our simulated client, ‘Aggie’. Homecare staff were faced with risks including mouldy food, fall hazards and unlabelled medications, and were asked to identify the risks and make plans for overcoming them.
The results of the study show that homecare workers see the simulation as realistic, proving that this is an effective way of training staff. By giving carers the opportunity to explore their knowledge in a safe environment, we can build their ability to consider client care and spot and address potential problems.
We are now working on further opportunities to use simulation to support carers’ learning.
Funding, Impact and Media
Funding and support
The SimEdCare project was supported with £25,000 from the Regional Innovation Fund.
Impact and applications
Since the completion of the study, GoodOaks has included simulation within their training programmes. We’ve also done further work with GoodOaks to explore how we could use these facilities to provide tailored support to families and carers of people with a dementia diagnosis, by co-hosting a Living Well with Dementia day.
Media and publications
- https://attoday.co.uk/new-practical-hands-on-training-to-prepare-new-home-carers-for-their-role/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjtHX9SxaQ0
- Research findings from this project will be presented at: Developing Research South West Conference
Get Involved
If you are interested in this project or in using simulation to improve care, please contact Dr Michelle Holmes: michelle.holmes@hsu.ac.uk
