Physiotherapy students portraying patient roles with their peers: an innovative educational approach

This thesis investigates the development and evaluation of a peer simulation program in an entry-level Australian physiotherapy curriculum, and construction of preliminary evidence-based recommendations for the design of peer simulation programs for health professional curricula. The findings reveal that peer simulation (where students portray patient roles in simulated clinical interactions with their peers) appears to be a viable and potentially enriching approach to simulation-based education for physiotherapy students. Additionally, students appear to obtain unique and valuable insight into patients' perspectives of healthcare and health conditions.