In October, five members of the SIMBA partnership participated in and presented at the 28th ENOTHE Annual Meeting in Coimbra, Portugal. As the project concludes on November 30, this was an exciting opportunity to showcase all materials developed during the project – the SimOT Toolkit– through a symposium and to engage participants in the implementation of simulation-based learning (SBL) in occupational therapy during a hands-on workshop.
The workshop was led by Anu Kuikkaniemi, Heli Arokki, and their outstanding student Sanni-Sisko Koistinen, who represented the student perspective in simulation. Participants explored how students’ behaviour can vary during a simulation and how debriefing might be conducted in two contrasting situations: one where improvement is needed and one where the student performs
excellently. Both types of debriefing require equal skill from the facilitator and provide valuable learning experiences for students. Sanni-Sisko highlighted the importance of psychological safety and advocated for the added value of incorporating SBL as a teaching method in occupational therapy education from a student’s perspective.
Claire Sangster Jokic, Katrin Pechstädt, and Kuni Vergauwen represented the SIMBA partnership during the symposium and were thrilled to finally present the project and its outcomes (SimOT Toolkit) in full. They received positive feedback on the developed materials and, as a partnership, we sincerely hope they will serve as user-friendly and effective resources to support occupational therapy educators in integrating this educational approach into their curricula.
Sanni-Sisko Koistinen also presented a poster titled “Learning by Doing: The Impact of Simulation on Occupational Therapy Students’ Clinical Confidence.” In her presentation, she emphasized the importance of creating a safe learning environment during simulation exercises and the value of constructive feedback. She also highlighted that simulation training is crucial for enhancing client-centred practice and future research is required on the use of simulation in education.
A poster presented by Heli Arokki, “How to develop students’ interpersonal skills through simulation-based learning?”, completed our presence by offering practical strategies and tools to help students master interpersonal skills through SBL.
All abstracts from the Annual meeting can be consulted in the Book of Abstracts: https://usercontent.one/wp/enothe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AM-2025-Portugal-Book-of-Abstracts.pdf?media=1750768761.
A final highlight was the enthusiasm and reference from Danish colleagues to our Guidelines, a clear sign that our materials are finding their way to a broader audience.
Currently, we are putting the finishing touches on the SIMBA web platform and Learning Hub, where all materials will be freely available via open access starting November 30. After that, we will continue building the SimOT community on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/15471012/.
Will you join us there?