Abstract

Clinical reasoning is described as a fundamental pillar within the curriculum of different health careers and the methodologies and didactics must tend towards significant learning that promotes this competence. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, there were restrictions on access to clinical settings, which forced the design of teaching strategies that could partly make up for this deficit. The objective of this article is to describe the experience of implementing simulation strategies for the development of clinical reasoning in the context of a pandemic in physiotherapy students at a Chilean university. In two consecutive academic semesters, clinical telesimulation was initially carried out for two courses (semester 1) and later, upon return to face-to-face, activities in a simulated learning environment (semester 2). Three simulation scenarios were developed in each semester. For the preparation and content of the scenarios, the orientation of a comprehensive approach was used as a basis, involving the person in the center of the physiotherapy work, and considering that this person interacts with a context. The environments had a focus on function/health and dysfunction/disease and the incorporation of the scenarios during each semester was based on the execution of the physiotherapy process. Low (role play) and high fidelity (standardized patients) were used; 120 students, four teacher facilitators, two actors and two assistants participated. The clinical simulation allowed the achievement of most of the learning outcomes raised in the subjects, through the implementation of a clinical practice in a safe environment with a training orientation. Even though anxiety and unrest were evident in some cases, in general the students valued this experience as an enriching educational strategy. © 2024, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. All rights reserved.