Pedagogical Practices for Organizing Simulation-Based Healthcare Education

Abstract

Despite the positive findings on the results of simulation-based health-care education, what truly makes it successful remains unclear. We do not know enough about when and how the simulation-based learning environment (SBLE) should be applied. Thus, the specific aim of this the-matic-review study was to determine what the facilitators' pedagogical activities are in the simulation-based education process. For this purpose, the study reviewed 83 previous studies in which the pedagogical prac-tices were explained or examined. Based on the literature review, the ped-agogical practices have been clearly linked to facilitators' activities before, during, or after simulation. Most of the research has focused on facilita-tors' activities during simulation-based education, especially during the debriefing phase. Some studies have examined pre-simulation activities, but the research concentrating on facilitators' post-simulation activities is limited. All in all, this thematic literature review provided insights on the successful pedagogical practices for implementing the simulation-based health-care education process. To further develop simulation-based health-care education and to optimize the use of such a learning environ-ment, scholars should describe facilitators' and learners' activities more accurately; and they should use more rigorous research methods to ana-lyze the teaching and the learning activities. Furthermore, such knowledge should be synthesized and used to develop pedagogical mod-els and methods for simulation-based healthcare education and to inte-grate them into various learning contexts.