[Medical paediatric simulation: a European survey].

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To present the effective applications of paediatric medical simulation in terms of education, evaluation, density, development, goals and constraints.STUDY DESIGN: Survey realized within 38 paediatric simulation centres (PSC) in Europe, identified by Web search and through the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM.RESULTS: Twenty centers answered the questionnaire (52%). Ninety-four percent of the PSC had beforehand acquired an experience of adult medical simulation, 94.6% of the PSC were created before 2006. Ninety percent of the PSC owned at least one high-fidelity pediatric simulator. The 80% of the PSC indicated multiple funding sources. Eighty percent of the PSC had at least one specific instructor for the paediatric simulation (average=2.7 paediatric instructors per centre). The PCS reported to get onto various topics: neonatology (25% of the PCS), prehospital medicine (36.8%), paediatric anaesthesiology (74%) and paediatric intensive care (89%). Simulation allowed 70% of the centers to lead some research project. Ninety-five percent of the centers agreed about an European collaboration on research projects or about the mutualization of the created scenarios.CONCLUSION: The material, financial and human means of the interviewed centres are consequential but heterogeneous in Europe. MSP offers numerous and various application fields and generates some research activity.