In this episode of SimCast, Lawrence Hill and Tony Jermy are joined by Helen Needham, a learning disability nurse and academic at Birmingham City University with more than 40 years of experience across clinical, community and educational settings. Helen explores how simulation can help healthcare students develop the communication, relational and interpersonal skills needed when working with people with learning disabilities and cognitive impairment. The conversation examines psychological safety, the importance of establishing genuine human connection, the challenges of creating authentic simulated experiences, and why seemingly everyday conversations can represent significant “bad news” for the person receiving them.

Helen also discusses her professional doctorate exploring learning disability student nurses’ experiences of breaking bad news through simulation, including emerging findings around anxiety, confidence, emotional responses and the opportunity to rehearse conversations that students may rarely be able to practise in clinical placements. The discussion moves into some of the more difficult territory surrounding authenticity and ethics, including the involvement of people with learning disabilities in simulation, the potential for simulation itself to cause harm, and whether greater realism is always desirable. The episode concludes by considering the future of learning disability simulation, interprofessional applications and the potential for this work to support educators beyond Helen’s own institution.

If you’d like to find out more about Helen’s work in learning disability nursing and simulation, you can connect with her via Helen.Needham@BCU.ac.uk or via LinkedIn.

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