Simulation in Medical Education

Abstract

The use of simulation in the medical teaching process is attractive for all the people involved. Patients, trainees, trainers, researchers, administrators, industry, they all may benefit from the development of this tool and they already set up high levels of expectation. It is very clear that simulation provides an opportunity for teaching but it is not yet consistently proved if other expected benefits from simulation use are real. We may agree that opportunity alone is a strong argument to use simulation to train for catastrophic rare events like malignant hyperthermia or emergency cricothyroidotomy, but is that the case for routine care as well? While some organisations advocate for offering certificates to simulation programs, others warn about the danger of using simulation alone as a teaching tool and prohibit this practice. Simulation is not a cheap tool and the real benefits of using it need to be demonstrated to the managers before we can expect them to agree with such an expensive investment. The very well-known argument "we may lose more money than a simulator's price in a malpractice suit" may not work, as nobody demonstrated that using simulation for training prevents malpractice accusations. In the long road from just "doing things" to "doing the right things right" medical simulation is just at the beginning. We should aim for both high efficiency and high effectiveness even if it might sound unrealistic. Researchers and educators will first need to establish how to measure the expected effects. Only by routinely measuring the results of medical simulation use we will be able to improve it, just like in any other aspect of life.