Glamorgan Blogs

The Department of Health, under the auspices of the Chief Medical Officer, has recently (March 2009) issued a fascinating paper calling for tomorrow’s healthcare professionals to be trained using simulation-based techniques

The paper acknowledges a few interesting developments. For example: studies of simulation training for surgical skills have shown that surgeons trained in this way make fewer errors – simulation offers an important route to safer care for patients. A fascinating point is raised in relation to learners observing a teacher undertaking a technique: at the Glamorgan Clinical Simulation Centre, using the Dreyfus & Dreyfus model (which is also mentioned in the report), we are attempting capture expert practice using Studiocode and replaying these events back to ‘novices’. Using a constructivist framework, we will unpick the processes of learning in a high-fidelity simulation environment.

The report also points to the importance of using simulation to practice team-work, or as the paper states, “Some people inherently work well in teams, but everyone can improve their skills. Teamworking is best learnt from experience.” Central in the practices at the Glamorgan Clinical Simulation Centre, and acknowledged in the paper, are the debriefing sessions – simulated scenarios give adequate time to encourage reflection and to identify what could be done better. The paper contains a number of case studies from nine regions in England and some useful reading. Importantly it acknowledges that simulation-based learning is somewhat more developed in other parts of the world and recommends: “Simulation-based training should be fully integrated and funded within training programmes for clinicians at all stages” – it bemoans the “national capacity or co-ordination that is needed.”

Papers like this will clearly impact on informing national and regaional strategies – it will be interesting to note how practice and priorities change.

Virendra Mistry