A novel Approach to Developing Interprofessional Education using Hydra

Abstract

Interprofessional education occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes (WHO 2010). Starting in October 2022 the suite of health related courses at USW expanded to include operating department practitioners, and physiotherapists and occupational therapists on part time degrees. With this in mind an immersive simulation was developed within our state of the art hydra simulation facility. The Hydra Simulation Centre, provides a unique learning and teaching environment within higher education and is used to conduct immersive, simulated scenarios for a variety of students. Hydra is a training tool that enables the monitoring of group dynamics, real-time leadership and naturalistic decision  making. Hydra methodology has long been embedded in the training of police and emergency service personnel for critical incident decision making, and its simulations have been conducted at USW for almost a decade. Hydra is now a core feature of many undergraduate and postgraduate courses.<br/