Simulation Training and Skill Assessment in Emergency Medicine

Excerpt

Simulation has become a mainstay in the education of not only healthcare professionals but many different professions the world over. As our global medical knowledge continues to expand, and our societal, technological advancements continue to broaden, the idea of learning on a live patient is becoming a less preferred method of teaching medical professionals. Patient safety is a commonly cited reason simulation is a preferred teaching modality. Moreover, research has demonstrated that appropriately constructed simulation learning objectives and scenarios are as effective, and in many cases, more effective than traditional teaching methods used in the education of healthcare providers.

As a professional medical specialty, Emergency Medicine is uniquely suited to learning through simulation as Emergency Medicine encompasses the entire breadth of medical specialties and the whole spectrum of patient populations and disease pathology. Also, Emergency Medicine is a quite procedurally oriented specialty, which again leads to simulation training as a natural way of providing skill acquisition. Even further, practicing emergency physicians are required to be proficient in all emergent life-saving and stabilizing procedures. Unfortunately, many of these procedures are not encountered with high frequency throughout the residency training timeframe. Therefore the ACGME and review committee for Emergency Medicine (RC-EM) has accepted that infrequent procedures such as pericardiocentesis or cricothyrotomy may be performed, with proficiency attained through simulation. It has also been determined that a portion of more frequent but still less common procedures may be achieved through simulation.

The entire premise for simulation is to provide learners with a library of experience to draw upon so that when specific situations are encountered during real-time patient care, that those times are not the first experience the learner has regarding that same situation. Simulation allows the learners to gain experience, comfort, and proficiency without having to evaluate patients with specific, often rare pathology or scenarios that are infrequently encountered. Additionally, simulation is an adequate avenue for the maintenance of procedural, clinical, and non-clinical skills and can be used throughout one's professional career. This article is intended to be a basic overview and should serve as a starting point for the introduction to the field of simulation education.