Simulation in medical education : a case study evaluating the efficacy of high-fidelity patient simulation

Abstract

High-fidelity patient simulation (HFPS) recreates clinical scenarios by combining mock patients and realistic environments to prepare learners with practical experience to meet the demands of modern clinical practice while ensuring patient safety. This research investigated the efficacy of HFPS in medical education through a case study of the Indiana University Bloomington Interprofessional Simulation Center. The goal of this research was to understand the role of simulated learning for attaining clinical selfefficacy and how HFPS training impacts performance. Three research questions were addressed to investigate HFPS in medical education using a mixed methods study design. Clinical competence and self-efficacy were quantified among medical students at IUSMBloomington utilizing HFPS compared to two IUSM campuses that did not incorporate this instructional intervention. Clinical competence was measured as performance on the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), while self-efficacy of medical students was measured through a validated questionnaire. Although the effect of HFPS on quantitative results was not definitive, general trends allude to the ability of HFPS to recalibrate learners’ perceived and actual performance. Additionally, perceptual data regarding HFPS from both medical students and medical residents was analyzed. Qualitative results discovered the utility of HFPS for obtaining the clinical mental framework of a physician, fundamental psychomotor skills, and essential practice communicating and functioning as a healthcare team during interprofessional education simulations. Continued studies of HFPS are necessary to fully elucidate the value of this instructional adjunct, however positive outcomes of simulated learning on both medical students and medical residents were discovered in this study contributing to the existing HFPS literature.