Entry-level facilitator training builds master’s students’ confidence and reflective mindset, qualitative study finds

Master’s students in healthcare education who completed an entry-level simulation facilitator course reported growing confidence and a reflective mindset that they carried into both educational and clinical settings, according to a qualitative study published in Advances in Simulation. The research explored how students experienced the SimBegin® Level 1 facilitator course and how the competencies it taught were applied well beyond the simulation room.

Simulation-based training is described in the study as a widely used and effective learning method in healthcare education. Expanding access to high-quality simulation, the authors note, requires a greater number of competent facilitators. Peer-facilitated simulation has demonstrated effectiveness and acceptability within healthcare education and represents one strategy to increase facilitation capacity. While master’s students are increasingly engaged in facilitator training, the researchers point out that limited evidence has existed on how these students experience the facilitator role and how facilitation competencies are developed and implemented across educational and clinical contexts.

To address that gap, the study followed master’s students in midwifery and Prehospital Critical Care who had completed the entry-level facilitator course. Seventeen participants were interviewed in four focus groups lasting 45 to 60 minutes each, conducted eight months after course completion. The interviews explored the students’ experiences of the course and their perceptions of how facilitator competencies were applied across their studies and clinical placements.

Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, an approach the researchers chose to enable an inductive and interpretive exploration of participants’ experiences. From this analysis, three themes were developed: growing facilitator confidence; developing a reflective mindset beyond simulation; and motivated but constrained.

The first theme captured a sense of increased confidence and facilitation competence that participants described following the course. Students reported applying these competencies in both educational and clinical settings, suggesting that the skills acquired in the facilitator course were not confined to formal simulation activities but transferred into the wider contexts of their professional education.

The second theme centred on reflection. The training appeared to foster a reflective mindset among participants, with an emphasis on learning from successes contributing to safe learning environments. According to the study’s conclusion, participants described applying facilitation principles beyond simulation, particularly to support reflective conversations, including clinical debriefings.

The third theme, motivated but constrained, reflects a more complicated picture. Despite the students’ enthusiasm and their reported readiness to facilitate, organisational and contextual factors influenced their ability to enact facilitator competencies in practice. The study’s conclusion states that, despite their motivation, these organisational and contextual factors constrained their ability to put what they had learned into action.

Taken together, the findings suggest that formal entry-level facilitator training may support master’s students in developing confidence and readiness to facilitate simulation. The authors frame this as a promising signal for programmes seeking to expand facilitation capacity by training students as peer facilitators, while also highlighting that individual competence alone does not guarantee opportunities to use it.

As a qualitative study based on focus group interviews with 17 students from two specific master’s programmes, the research describes participants’ experiences and perceptions rather than measuring outcomes. The authors present the findings as suggesting, rather than proving, that entry-level facilitator training supports confidence and readiness, and the study was published as an open access article on 21 October 2026.

The study adds to a growing body of work on facilitation in healthcare simulation education, an area in which recent publications have examined how facilitators use students’ mistakes to promote reflection during debriefings, facilitators’ experiences with virtual simulation, and comparisons of reflection levels between facilitator-led and student-led debriefing. Within this landscape, the present study offers a perspective on the students themselves: how those being trained as facilitators experience the role, and what happens when they attempt to carry facilitation principles into their clinical placements.

Subject of Research: Entry-level simulation facilitator training and master's students' reflective practice in healthcare education

Article Title: How entry-level facilitator training shapes master’s students’ reflective practice beyond simulation — a qualitative study

Article References: Vadla, M. S., Folkvord, S. E., Heimvik, L. A., Oftedal, B., & Furskog-Risa, E. C. (2026). How entry-level facilitator training shapes master’s students’ reflective practice beyond simulation — a qualitative study. Advances in Simulation. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41077-026-00498-9

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s41077-026-00498-9

Keywords: simulation-based training, facilitator training, SimBegin, master's students, reflective practice, debriefing, peer facilitation, midwifery, prehospital critical care, qualitative study, thematic analysis, healthcare education