Elevate Healthcare has made great strides to incorporate physiological realism into clinical simulation products. Realism is a vital component of healthcare simulation, enabling the accurate replication of human responses to various physical states and clinical interventions that are true to life. Research has shown that “perfect practice” makes perfect, not practice makes perfect. Medical simulation provides healthcare provider learners the opportunity to respond effectively to human patients to provide evidence-based quality patient care to improve patient safety and outcomes. This HealthySimulation.com article by Teresa Gore, PhD, DNP, FNP-BC, CHSE-A, FSSH, FAAN, explores how Elevate Healthcare builds physiological realism into their clinical simulation products to improve healthcare professionals’ critical thinking and competency in patient care delivery.
Compare the Realism of Clinical Simulation to Flight Simulation
Just as a flight simulator without models of airplanes and realistic flight conditions would be deemed inadequate, many medical simulators on the market lack robust models of human physiology and pharmacology. In model-based simulators, clinical signs and monitored signals evolve and respond automatically to interventions, minimizing the need for real-time intervention by a simulation instructor or technician. This approach enhances the realism and consistency of simulations while reducing the workload of facilitators. This aspect is particularly crucial in acute care settings, where any delay can mean the difference between life, death, and major complications.
The design of clinical scenarios is greatly facilitated in model-based simulators. Only a limited set of underlying physiological quantities need to be manipulated, allowing the models to respond automatically. Recent advancements in physiological modeling have mitigated challenges associated with incorporating a diversity of patient profiles and conditions, resulting in a more comprehensive and effective simulation experience.
Principles of Model-Driven Physiological Processes in Medical Simulation
Understanding the principles of model-driven physiological processes is essential for designing effective educational simulations. These principles help educators and trainers create realistic scenarios that reflect actual clinical situations, enhancing the learning experience. Attendees of related training sessions will gain insights into the evolution of this important simulator technology, its impact on medical training, and its specific applications across various medical fields.
A hardware solution uses the signal of the high-fidelity manikin as an assessment cue to the learners. Another method is more technologically advanced software that uses bi-directional communication between the high-fidelity manikin and the computer systems for data exchange. The bi-directional flow decreases the input required by a facilitator or simulation operations specialists as the system is automated. A clinical simulation product with a more physiological process has a bi-directional flow of data, so the high-fidelity manikin will respond as a human patient automatically based on the protocols and parameters that are established during the design of the simulation scenario.
To learn more about the integration of physiological realism in medical simulation: Register for a HealthySimulation.com webinar on November 6, 2024, at 10AM PST / 1PM ET:
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Physiological Realism in Medical Simulation to learn more!
Healthcare professional educators must embrace technological advances and balance the novelty of everything new with the feasibility of fiscal responsibility, efficacy, and applicability for education of clinical students. The purpose is to ensure that simulation tools and modalities align with the constant evolution of healthcare, the needs of medical learners and educators. The medical educators must resist the urge to the buy the greatest new devices on the market.
The technology must advance the ability of the learner to comprehend and apply the knowledge in the clinical setting to improve critical thinking, clinical judgment, and patient care. .
Benefits of Increased Physiology into Clinical Simulation
Enhanced educational outcomes and patient care can be achieved with the incorporation of higher levels of physiology into clinical simulation.
- Realistic Learning Experience: With the integration of more accurate physiological responses, learners experience a closer approximation of real-life patient reactions.
- Enhanced Decision-Making Skills: With physiological variables closely mirroring real responses, clinicians can practice critical thinking and decision-making when the high-fidelity simulation physiological responses mirror the human patient responses. This allows the healthcare professional learner the opportunity to interpret the physiological data in real-time, assess the patient’s condition, and adjust treatments to incorporate evidence-based practice for better patient outcomes..
- Improved Diagnosis Skills: Detailed physiology within simulation allows the learners to observe subtle assessment findings and cues that could indicate a change in the patient’s condition and potential issues that could be the cause of the condition change.
- Safer Environment for Skill Development: Complex physiology in simulations allows clinicians to practice their responses to complications without risk to real patients in a controlled, safe setting.
- Measurement of Proficiency: Advanced physiological simulation allows for more accurate assessment of learners’ abilities, as the physiological model provides feedback based on the realism of their actions to achieve competency levels.
- Encourages a Deep Comprehension of Physiology: Clinicians need to understand underlying physiological processes, which are emphasized in advanced simulations.
More About Elevate Healthcare
Elevate Healthcare, formerly CAE Healthcare, has established itself as a global leader in healthcare simulation, offering innovative solutions to enhance patient safety and clinical performance. With a comprehensive suite of offerings—which includes patient simulation, digital platforms, and the cutting-edge LearningSpace simulation center debriefing platform—Elevate Healthcare empowers current and future healthcare professionals to improve patient outcomes and make healthcare safer.
Through training, education, consultation services, and strategic simulation planning and execution, tailored solutions are delivered to meet the diverse needs of healthcare organizations. Backed by a dedicated global customer service team, Elevate Healthcare ensures unparalleled customer support and expertise worldwide. Elevate Healthcare offers a unique range of patient simulators and a broad simulation center ecosystem for medical training, including simulation center management systems like LearningSpace, patient simulators such as Ares, Apollo, Juno, Lucina, Aria, and Luna, as well as skills trainers from the Medicor line, ventilator SimEquip line, and Ultrasound Blue Phantom product lines.
Learn More About Elevate Healthcare and the Physiology Offered!
