Comparison of the two methods of "Simulation Patient " and "Real Patient " in training of transferring of Patients with Spinal Cord Injury in occupational Therapy Students

Promoting education requires using of methods that enable students learn better and play an active role in learning. Achieving such a goal requires using of new teaching methods by teachers in designing teaching methods. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two training methods of "simulation patient" and "real patient" in transferring of spinal cord injury patients on knowledge, attitude and skill of occupational therapy students.

The present study is a quasi-experimental study with two group plan: pre-test and post-test, which included 38 undergraduate occupational therapy students that selected by census method. Then participants through simple randomization divided in two groups (19 members). Content of education about transferring of spinal cord injury patients was presented in both groups via lecture and slide during two days. Then, for practical training, students were divided into two groups of training (simulation patient and real patient). Before and after practical -training, knowledge and attitude questionnaires and observational skills checklists were distributed and collected from two groups. Data were analyzed by Wilcoxon test and U Mann-Whitney test through SPSS.

There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of age, gender, and marital status. After practical training, the results showed a significant difference between the two groups in changing the level of knowledge (P=0.019) skill in terms of general educational content (P=0.006), specific educational content (P=0.000) and relationship initiation (P=0.001).also, findings show significant difference between two groups in "real patient" method but no significant difference in "simulation patient" method.

According to the results, it can be concluded that clinical education can improve the level of knowledge and skill of occupational therapy students as compared to the role-playing method and as a new educational method in medical sciences, increase the quality of education.