What Is Clinical Simulation?

Clinical simulation is a training technique for doctors, nurses, medical students and other healthcare professionals. It enables then to receive hands-on training in realistic scenarios, without any risk to the health and well-being of real patients.

Why Clinical Simulation?

• Practicing on real-life patients may be questionable, ethically, even when opportunities to do so arise. Clinical simulation presents no such moral dilemmas, and simulation has been used effectively in other high risk areas, such as civil and military aviation.

Clinical Simulation Facilities

• Clinical simulation facilities are typically with life-sized, anatomically correct, human models--manikins -- that can be used with real medical equipment, to provide an authentic clinical experience. Audiovisual equipment is used to record students' performance so that it can be analyzed.

Benefits

• Clinical simulation provides medical staff with the opportunity to translate experience, in a variety of lifelike situations, into learning. According to the "Hong Kong Medical Journal," clinical simulation can overcome some of the limitations of traditional methods of training, from textbooks, lectures and on-the-job experience in hospital wards.