In situ simulation in emergency medicine: Moving beyond the simulation lab

Abstract

In situ simulation (ISS), a point of care training strategy that occurs within the patient care environment involving actual healthcare team members, provides additional benefits to centre-based simulation. ISS can serve several roles within emergency medicine (EM): improves provider/team performance, identifies and mitigates threats to patient safety and improves systems and infrastructure. The effective use of ISS fosters inter-professional team training and a culture of safety essential for high performance EM teams and resilient systems. Using a case example, this article addresses the uses of ISS in EM, strategies for implementation and mitigation strategies for ED-specific challenges.

Keywords: emergency medicine; in situ simulation; patient safety; team training.