Medical Simulation Training Benefits

Medical Simulation Training for Improved Education

Medical simulators are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. Currently hundreds of schools in the United States and around the world provide hands-on health care education to medical, nursing, and allied health students. Virtual reality medical simulators used in combination with traditional training methods can provide a comprehensive learning opportunity. Immersion Medical simulators can be a resource for training a team of individuals and for providing a more flexible and less costly training environment.

Risk-free Environments for Improving Patient Safety

Using virtual reality simulation, medical students, residents, and practicing physicians can learn treatment protocols and master basic and procedural skills before touching a real patient. Physicians can review, repeat, and reassess their performance and find areas for improvement without compromising patient safety.

Repetitive Skills Training for Improving Proficiency

Medical simulators allow the clinician to safely learn, practice, and repeat the skill or procedure over and over until proficiency is achieved. Simulation training fosters critical thinking, active learning, and confidence building.

Visual, Physiological, and Tactile Realism

Simulation training offers visual, physiological, and tactile realism that mimics the look and feel of performing the actual procedure. Physicians often use realistic instruments, and patented force feedback produces resistance against the instrument as it moves. Anatomy looks real and responds appropriately. Virtual patients complain if they are hurt and may even exhibit bleeding during the procedure.

Variety in Clinical Scenarios and Complications

Medical simulators offer immediate training opportunities, overcoming the problem of having to wait for suitable real-life cases to present themselves. They allow easy access to a wide variety of clinical scenarios, including rare complications that allow trainees to benefit from observing the reasoning of an acknowledged expert as they work through difficult situations.

Objective Assessment
Immersion Medical simulators record a variety of performance metrics that can be used to assess skill acquisition and competency. In addition, many nursing schools and academic centers have integrated simulation training into their curriculum.

Training New Techniques
A medical simulator offers a powerful tool for training of new techniques, procedures, and tools. For example, an estimated 250,000 patients in the U.S. are at risk for a cerebrovascular accident due to carotid disease. Training for interventional cardiologists, radiologists, and vascular surgeons will be in great demand because recent data shows a benefit from carotid stent placement over carotid endarterectomy. This procedure requires a profound understanding of indication, 3D heart anatomy and interpretation of online ultrasound images via transesophageal and/or intracardiac echocardiography. A physics-based medical simulator that realistically emulates the entire endovascular environment can help develop the skills required for this type of cutting-edge medical procedure and the knowledge needed to perform the procedure safely, all in a collapsed timeframe.

Effective for Certification and Testing
Medical simulators can be useful tools in determining a physician’s understanding and their adoption of best practices, appropriate use of tools and devices, management of patient complications, and overall competence in performing a procedure. Many believe simulation training should be a required element in all new procedural training and also used for evaluation of technical skills for certification. There is a growing sense that the availability of simulators is now creating a paradigmatic shift in how medicine will be taught and practiced in the future. For example, in April 2004, the FDA voted to approve carotid stent placement and simulation-based training that supports its use. Additionally the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) adopted guidelines incorporating medical simulation training in its laparoscopic surgery program.