Simulation
Good patient outcome by luck alone is no longer acceptable. It is important for the appropriate process to occur in all interactions, including those between patient and staff, staff and staff and the individual and the 'systems' within which they work. The term ‘competency’ is being utilised less and less. A practitioner who is technically competent may not manage the non-technical areas of clinical practice well, negatively impacting patient outcome.
Your training must therefore include appropriate grounding in theory and in technical skills. Technical training needs to be integrated with non-technical skills to facilitate teamwork and situation awareness at local, regional and systemic levels. Non-technical skills include appropriate and effective communication by understanding others' perspectives and therefore 'sharing mental models'. All factors that are important for good clinical practice.
Simulation is a fantastic platform for teaching and training. It is a great learning tool for any practitioner who appreciates the importance of continual education in their profession.
Benefits of Simulation
Training of healthcare staff, in general, follows the methodology of learning by observation and repetition. This process has shortcomings. You only learn from those cases and situations that present themselves. This ‘watch one, do one’ process can also be very time-consuming. Simulation-based training provides an alternative training paradigm that addresses that issue. The benefits of simulation-based training include:
- Training at convenient times - training need not wait until a patient becomes available. A simulator can be used at the convenience of both you and the instructor.
- You can experience rare and/or unusual cases as often as necessary - by their very nature, rare cases are not often encountered, particularly by residents. A simulator can be set up to represent patients with a multitude of maladies, and training sessions can be repeated as often as necessary.
- Flexibility because different levels of training can be accomplished with a simulator. Training sessions can be set up for learning fundamental principles, basic procedures, learning to deal with critical events, and for team training for crisis management, all using the same simulator.
- No risk to a patient - in utilising a simulator, the simulator is the patient. You get to practice, make mistakes, and improve skills on the simulated patient. The end result of simulation-based training is better trained healthcare