Author: Fatimah Lateef
Simulation is a technique for practice and learning that can be applied to many different disciplines and trainees. It is a technique (not a technology) to replace and amplify real experiences with guided ones, often “
Author: Fatimah Lateef
Simulation is a technique for practice and learning that can be applied to many different disciplines and trainees. It is a technique (not a technology) to replace and amplify real experiences with guided ones, often “immersive” in nature, that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive fashion. Simulation-based learning can be the way to develop health professionals’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, whilst protecting patients from unnecessary risks. Simulation-based medical education can be a platform which provides a valuable tool in learning to mitigate ethical tensions and resolve practical dilemmas. Simulation-based training techniques, tools, and strategies can be applied in designing structured learning experiences, as well as be used as a measurement tool linked to targeted teamwork competencies and learning objectives. It has been widely applied in fields such aviation and the military. In medicine, simulation offers good scope for training of interdisciplinary medical teams. The realistic scenarios and equipment allows for retraining and practice till one can master the procedure or skill. An increasing number of health care institutions and medical schools are now turning to simulation-based learning. Teamwork training conducted in the simulated environment may offer an additive benefit to the traditional didactic instruction, enhance performance, and possibly also help reduce errors.
In medical education, there should be exposure to live patients so that medical students and doctors can acquire the necessary skills. There is also, on the other hand, an obligation to provide optimal treatment and to ensure patients’ safety and well-being. These two competing needs can sometimes pose a dilemma in medical education. Also, medicine is a discipline that is a science as well as an art and repeated exposures with enhanced experience will help improve skills and confidence.
The growing complexities of patient care require doctors to master not only knowledge and procedural skills but also the ability to effectively communicate with patients, relatives, and other health care providers and also to coordinate a variety of patient care activities. Doctors have to be good team players and their training programmes must systematically inculcate these skills. Teamwork-related competencies are relatively new considerations in the arena of health care.
Simulation is a technique for practice and learning that can be applied to many different disciplines and types of trainees. It is a technique (not a technology) to replace and amplify real experiences with guided ones, often “immersive” in nature, that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive fashion. “Immersive” here implies that participants are immersed in a task or setting as if it were the real world.[2,3]
Full-body mannequin simulators originated in the field of anesthesia in the late 1960s, based on work done by Denson and Abrahamson from the University of Southern California. This model was known as ‘Sim One’ and was used for training in endotracheal intubation and induction of anesthesia. In the 1980s, during the time when personal computers became less expensive and more simulation software became available, independent groups began to develop simulator systems. Much of this was utilized in the areas of aviation, military training, nuclear power generation, and space flights. In the early 1990s, more comprehensive anesthesia simulation environments were produced, which included the MedSim and, later, the Medical Education Technologies Inc. (METI) Advanced Human Patient Simulator. Aviation simulation training concepts then begun to be gradually introduced into anesthesia and other areas of medicine like critical care, obstetrics, emergency medicine, and internal medicine. Current full-body simulator models incorporate computerized models that closely approximate the physiology seen in the human body.
Simulation-based learning can be the answer to developing health professionals’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, whilst protecting patients from unnecessary risks. Simulation-based medical education can be a platform for learning to mitigate ethical tensions and resolve practical dilemmas. Simulationbased training techniques, tools, and strategies can be applied in designing structured learning experiences, as well as be used as a measurement tool linked to targeted teamwork competencies and learning objectives. Simulation-based learning itself is not new. It has been applied widely in the aviation industry (also known as CRM or crew resource management), anesthesiology, as well as in the military. It helps to mitigate errors and maintain a culture of safety, especially in these industries where there is zero tolerance for any deviation from set standards.[1,3]
Simulation has also begun to change much of the ways in which medicine is taught and how trainees and junior doctors acquire the relevant skills. Medical, nursing, and other health care staff also have the opportunity to develop and refine their skills, repeatedly if necessary, using simulation technology without putting patients at risk. Simulation training centers, with their new techniques and equipment, offer unique opportunities for dynamic, complex, and unanticipated medical situations to be practiced and managed. In both aviation and health care domains, human performance is strongly influenced by the situational context, i.e., the interaction between the task, the environment, and the behavior of team members. In aviation, more than 50 years of research has shown that superior cognitive and technical skills are not enough to ensure safety: effective teamwork skill is a must. Similar observations are also now being made