Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Nov 17;8(1):27.
doi: 10.1186/s41077-023-00266-z.

Distance simulation in the health professions: a scoping review

Rachel Elkin  1 , Jonathan P Duff  2 , Marian L LaForest  3 , Stephanie Stapleton  4 , Geethanjali Ramachandra  5 , Janice C Palaganas  6 , Isabel T Gross  7
Affiliations

Distance simulation in the health professions: a scoping review

Rachel Elkin et al. Adv Simul (Lond). .

Abstract

Background: Distance simulation is defined as simulation experiences in which participants and/or facilitators are separated from each other by geographic distance and/or time. The use of distance simulation as an education technique expanded rapidly with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, with a concomitant increase in scholarly work.

Methods: A scoping review was performed to review and characterize the distance simulation literature. With the assistance of an informationist, the literature was systematically searched. Each abstract was reviewed by two researchers and disagreements were addressed by consensus. Risk of bias of the included studies was evaluated using the Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) and Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tools.

Results: Six thousand nine hundred sixty-nine abstracts were screened, ultimately leading to 124 papers in the final dataset for extraction. A variety of simulation modalities, contexts, and distance simulation technologies were identified, with activities covering a range of content areas. Only 72 papers presented outcomes and sufficient detail to be analyzed for risk of bias. Most studies had moderate to high risk of bias, most commonly related to confounding factors, intervention classification, or measurement of outcomes.

Conclusions: Most of the papers reviewed during the more than 20-year time period captured in this study presented early work or low-level outcomes. More standardization around reporting is needed to facilitate a clear and shared understanding of future distance simulation research. As the broader simulation community gains more experience with distance simulation, more studies are needed to inform when and how it should be used.

Keywords: Distance simulation; Risk of bias; Scoping review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study flow diagram
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Studies included in the scoping review charted by publication year. A larger upswing of publications occurred between 2015 and 2020, with 2018 and 2020 having the highest number of publications per year
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Risk of bias assessments of included randomized trials
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Risk of bias assessments of included non-randomized trials
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Marescaux J, Mutter D, Soler L, Vix M, Leroy J. The Virtual University applied to telesurgery: from tele-education to tele-manipulation. Bull Acad Natl Med. 1999;183(3):509–21. - PubMed
    1. Duch Christensen M, Oestergaard D, Dieckmann P, Watterson L. Learners' perceptions during simulation-based training: an interview study comparing remote versus locally facilitated simulation-based training. Simul Healthc. 2018;13(5):306–315. doi: 10.1097/SIH.0000000000000300. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Altieri MS, Carmichael H, Jones E, Robinson T, Pryor A, Madani A. Educational value of telementoring for a simulation-based fundamental use of surgical energy™ (FUSE) curriculum: a randomized controlled trial in surgical trainees. Surg Endosc. 2020;34(8):3650–3655. doi: 10.1007/s00464-020-07609-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Carman M, Xu S, Rushton S, Smallheer BA, Williams D, Amarasekara S, et al. Use of a virtual learning platform for distance-based simulation in an acute care nurse practitioner curriculum. Dimens Crit Care Nurs. 2017;36(5):284–289. doi: 10.1097/DCC.0000000000000259. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Danesh V, Rolin D, Hudson SV, White S. Telehealth in mental health nursing education: health care simulation with remote presence technology. J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv. 2019;57(7):23–28. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20190306-01. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types