What is Simulation?
The creation of a situation or environment to allow participants to experience a representation of a real event for the purpose of practice, learning, evaluation, testing, or to gain understanding of systems or human action.
Basic Belief for all simulation training
“All participants at the Clinical Simulation Center are intelligent, skilled, and caring professionals committed to excellence, patient safety and self-improvement.” The CSC is a safe, non-threatening, realistic environment.
Types of Simulation
Standardized Patient (SP) Simulation/Simulated Patient involves the use of individuals trained to play the roles of patients, family members, or others to allow participants to practice history taking skills, physical exam skills, communication skills, and other exercises.
High Fidelity Simulation: A term often used to refer to the broad range of full-body manikins that have the ability to mimic, at a very high level, human body functions (Lopreiato, J. O. (Ed.), Downing, D., Gammon, W., Lioce, L., Sittner, B., Slot, V., Spain, A. E. (Associate Eds.), and the Terminology & Concepts Working Group. (2016). Healthcare Simulation Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.ssih.org/dictionary). These high fidelity manikins that have pulses, BP, breathe, lung sounds, heart sounds, pulse oximetry and a monitor that can display EKG, arterial waveforms, pulmonary artery waveforms, etc. These manikins can be used to create and allow participants to practice procedures such as CPR, bag-mask ventilation, intubation, defibrillation, chest tube placement and others.
Task Trainer/Partial Task Trainer Simulation includes the use of products to train or practice a specific skill such as intubation, central venous line placement, IV insertions, lumbar punctures, and other procedures.
Hybrid Simulation: The union of two or more modalities of simulation with the aim of providing a more realistic experience. (Lopreiato, J. O. (Ed.), Downing, D., Gammon, W., Lioce, L., Sittner, B., Slot, V., Spain, A. E. (Associate Eds.), and the Terminology & Concepts Working Group. (2016). Healthcare Simulation Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.ssih.org/dictionary). Most commonly this applies to a simulation where a standardized/simulated patients are used with high fidelity manikins or with a task trainer simulator.
In-Situ Simulation is when a simulation activity occurs in the actual patient care setting/environment such as a hospital unit or emergency room. This assists the simulation to achieve a high level of realism and are usually unannounced. The participants are on-duty clinical providers during their actual shift. This training is valuable to assess, troubleshoot, or develop new system processes. Given that the simulation occurs in the clinical environment, there are opportunities to identify hazards and deficiencies in the clinical systems, the environment, and the provider team.
