Reducing the threat: an experiential exercise to introduce role play to student nurses.

Role play is regarded as being a useful learning method for assisting student nurses to improve their interpersonal skills. It can provoke strong feelings in students both for and against its use, and the participation rate in role play exercises tends to be low. This paper describes an experiential exercise designed to introduce the concept of role play to students in a way that is hopefully less threatening than role play 'proper', with the aims of encouraging students to discuss the issues around the use of role play, and to reach a decision as to whether they will participate in role play in the future, and on what terms. It is hoped that the opt-out rate from role playing will be reduced, through students becoming more familiar with the method.