High-fidelity human patient simulators are becoming new partners in health care education. In the traditional classroom format a faculty member would begin to prepare students for the world of clinical care by explaining the physiology and assessments necessary to assess the patient’s physiological status, usually starting with the normal and moving on to the pathophysiologies. After this the faculty could provide the explanation of the care needed to prevent complications or what the treatments needed for the identified problems. Hopefully there would be opportunities for the student to care for a patient with the identified problem in the clinical setting. Of course there would also be some form of assessment, such as a written exam or assessment of the student’s performance in the clinical setting. This is beginning to change.
For many years patient models or mannequins have been available for faculty to use to demonstrate what has been presented in the classroom. Practicing patient care using these types of models is akin to working with department store mannequins. In the last 15 years or so high-fidelity human patient simulators have begun to replace a lot of the more static mannequins.
High-fidelity human patient simulators or mannequins are designed to duplicate many of the physiologic responses found in living human beings, such as a heartbeat, pulses and respirations. Students can take a blood pressure or insert a urinary catheter and get a flow of urine, or insert an IV needle and draw blood. A simulator that has been programmed to simulate respiratory distress can be intubated and placed on a ventilator. A pulse oximeter can be placed on one of the simulator’s fingers and an oxygen saturation level in the blood can be measured. Newborn Hal, one of the high-fidelity simulators pictured here can become cyanotic or blue.
For many years patient models or mannequins have been available for faculty to use to demonstrate what has been presented in the classroom. Practicing patient care using these types of models is akin to working with department store mannequins. In the last 15 years or so high-fidelity human patient simulators have begun to replace a lot of the more static mannequins.
High-fidelity human patient simulators or mannequins are designed to duplicate many of the physiologic responses found in living human beings, such as a heartbeat, pulses and respirations. Students can take a blood pressure or insert a urinary catheter and get a flow of urine, or insert an IV needle and draw blood. A simulator that has been programmed to simulate respiratory distress can be intubated and placed on a ventilator. A pulse oximeter can be placed on one of the simulator’s fingers and an oxygen saturation level in the blood can be measured. Newborn Hal, one of the high-fidelity simulators pictured here can become cyanotic or blue.
The simulators can also respond to spoken questions or voice personal statements via canned pre-recorded responses (in English or Spanish) or via the faculty speaking for the simulator via streaming audio.
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These simulators make it possible for students from multiple health-care disciplines to gain practice in more life-like patient care situations or scenarios. Faculty can write scenarios that present the students with a variety of situations. As the students respond to the simulated physiologic responses the computer
program will cause the simulator to respond in accordance to what the students have done, such as administering oxygen or repositioning the patient. The simulators respond according to what interventions the students have implemented, or not implemented. Lack of appropriate interventions can result in a worsening of the simulator’s physiologic condition to the point the simulator could possibly expire.
High-fidelity simulators are bringing out a revolution in health care education. Students can be afforded the opportunity for skills practice prior to caring for actual patients. It is possible to students to work in multi-disciplinary teams in response to simulated medical emergencies. Students can not only practice skills, they also gain experience working as a member of a health-care team, which is important in today’s health-care environment.
There are some disadvantages to high-fidelity simulators. The first is the cost. High-fidelity simulators can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. Also to be considered is the cost of the computer hardware and the physical location of the simulator. In order to supply good simulation the physical setting, such as a hospital room or the back of an ambulance, needs to be realistic in appearance and function. There are also maintenance costs and the salary of support, such as administrative support, IT support, and physical plant maintenance. Faculty need training in creating scenarios as well as in operating the simulators. It takes more than one person to successfully run a scenario. This necessitates either the assistance of another faculty member or other support person. One faculty member needs to be involved with the students during the scenario and a second person is necessary to operate the computers running the scenario. After a scenario has been completed it is of utmost importance to provide a debriefing session for discussion of what happened during the simulation as well as what the students learned from their participation. It takes time for all this to happen. It also takes time for faculty to become comfortable in using the simulators. There needs to be curricular changes that integrate the new technology. Faculty development monies and time is needed to provide adequate faculty training and support.
Health care in today’s society can be very complex and involve a multitude of health care providers who need to work together for the benefit of the patients. Practicing in a safe environment can increase student self-confidence and enable them to feel more at ease caring for actual patients. Experiential learning provided by simulation increases knowledge retention. There is also the matter of patient safety. A simulator will not feel the discomfort caused by an improperly placed IV catheter.
There are several possible ways for health care education programs to overcome the disadvantages of costs and time. A cooperative model in which several educational agencies share the costs and work together in creating a simulator center for education can is one possible solution. Not only the costs, but also the personnel can be shared among the agencies. It is also possible to seek out financial assistance in the form of grants or endowments to support the creating of a simulation center.
Human patient simulation is the wave of the future in health-care education. We are seeing more and more schools add simulation to the curriculum. In the future students might not only take online computer adaptive exams for licensure, but it is possible that candidates for licensure may also need to successfully pass a simulation exercise to demonstrate their proficiency in patient care.
High-fidelity simulators are bringing out a revolution in health care education. Students can be afforded the opportunity for skills practice prior to caring for actual patients. It is possible to students to work in multi-disciplinary teams in response to simulated medical emergencies. Students can not only practice skills, they also gain experience working as a member of a health-care team, which is important in today’s health-care environment.
There are some disadvantages to high-fidelity simulators. The first is the cost. High-fidelity simulators can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. Also to be considered is the cost of the computer hardware and the physical location of the simulator. In order to supply good simulation the physical setting, such as a hospital room or the back of an ambulance, needs to be realistic in appearance and function. There are also maintenance costs and the salary of support, such as administrative support, IT support, and physical plant maintenance. Faculty need training in creating scenarios as well as in operating the simulators. It takes more than one person to successfully run a scenario. This necessitates either the assistance of another faculty member or other support person. One faculty member needs to be involved with the students during the scenario and a second person is necessary to operate the computers running the scenario. After a scenario has been completed it is of utmost importance to provide a debriefing session for discussion of what happened during the simulation as well as what the students learned from their participation. It takes time for all this to happen. It also takes time for faculty to become comfortable in using the simulators. There needs to be curricular changes that integrate the new technology. Faculty development monies and time is needed to provide adequate faculty training and support.
Health care in today’s society can be very complex and involve a multitude of health care providers who need to work together for the benefit of the patients. Practicing in a safe environment can increase student self-confidence and enable them to feel more at ease caring for actual patients. Experiential learning provided by simulation increases knowledge retention. There is also the matter of patient safety. A simulator will not feel the discomfort caused by an improperly placed IV catheter.
There are several possible ways for health care education programs to overcome the disadvantages of costs and time. A cooperative model in which several educational agencies share the costs and work together in creating a simulator center for education can is one possible solution. Not only the costs, but also the personnel can be shared among the agencies. It is also possible to seek out financial assistance in the form of grants or endowments to support the creating of a simulation center.
Human patient simulation is the wave of the future in health-care education. We are seeing more and more schools add simulation to the curriculum. In the future students might not only take online computer adaptive exams for licensure, but it is possible that candidates for licensure may also need to successfully pass a simulation exercise to demonstrate their proficiency in patient care.
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