Simulation for Clinical Skills in Healthcare Education

Patients are heavily reliant on healthcare providers being knowledgeable and highly competent in a broad range of skills underpinned by sound knowledge. Some of these skills can be very specific, while others are rather general and may apply in combination or in parallel to others. The founding step to providing safe and effective patient care and working collaboratively with the wider clinical team lies in the acquisition of such skills. For learning to be imprinted in memory and then translated into performance, multiple factors come into play, such as the learners, the educators, the teaching methods, and the environment. The process is not the same for everyone, but some key educational principles prevail and some contribute to a better and faster assimilation of those skills. Simulation in particular, of which a broad range of modalities exist, and which are sometimes supported by more or less complex technology, is a particularly interesting approach as it promotes learner engagement, demonstration of competence, collaboration, and reflection. Simulation, in its various forms, has become a key element of the competency-based frameworks increasingly adopted in the educational process of healthcare learners and professionals. Its key aspects are that it is transformative for learners as it contributes to changing their mental frames and behaviors, helps them to assimilate new knowledge and skills, and promotes collaboration and reflection. The latter point is particularly important for nonprocedural clinical skills and can be promoted through structured feedback or debriefing phase following each simulation-based activity.