The American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) is a not-for-profit association dedicated to excellence in physical therapist education programs as a whole. ACAPT’s core purpose is to lead physical therapy in the pursuit of academic excellence. On October 1, 2020, a ACAPT Strategic Initiative Panel on Simulation Preliminary Report was submitted to summarize their charge and the results of surveys conducted. The main goal was to describe the current use of simulation within PT programs, the best practices in simulation, explore the role of simulation in accreditation standards. ACAPT contributed to the 2022 Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice from the International Nursing Associate for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL). This HealthySimulation.com article by Teresa Gore, PhD, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHSE-A, FSSH, FAAN will explore simulation scenarios resources for physical therapy programs.
Use of Clinical Simulation in Physical Therapy Education
For more information on the use of simulation and virtual simulation in physical therapy programs read the HealthySimulation.com article Using Virtual Reality for Physical Therapy Simulation Training. Here are some resources that are available for healthcare simulation scenarios and PT simulation scenarios. Some of the resources are free and others have charges.
American Council of Academic Physical Therapy Simulation Resource
The ACAPT Simulation Resource is available for Physical Therapy programs. On this resource page, simulationists have access to a simulation scenario library for ACAPT members, an ACAPT simulation scenario template, and a video on how to use the template. The website offers a free Simulation 101 recorded session to help address the gap identified in the ACAPT survey for the simulation professional development opportunities for faculty members teaching in the PT program.
View the LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Latest Trends in Virtual Reality Medical Simulation for Anatomy, Therapy and Research to learn more!
Interprofessional Simulation Scenarios
Physical Therapy faculty members should look at some of the interprofessional and other discipline simulation scenario resources. Simulation resources such as video, clips, radiographic reports, and patient presentations can be used as a foundation for improving or advancing the PT simulation program. Here are some other free resources available for consideration.
California Simulation Alliance
The California Simulation Alliance has a subscriber-only section for scenarios and tools. The scenarios that have been developed, validated and tested by CSA subject matter experts. QSEN and TeamSTEPPS competencies have been integrated in all scenarios where appropriate. Scenarios are to be used by subscribers only. If you are considering becoming a subscriber and would like to view a sample scenario, please contact CSA. Cases available include ambulatory care, critical care, implicit bias, LGBTQ, perioperative, leadership, peri-natal, emergency department, fundamentals in nursing, family nurse practitioner, medical-surgical, pediatrics, and interprofessional. In addition to these resources, white papers, IP release forms, scenario validation checklist CSA sim scenario template, CSA sim leadership scenario template, CSA sim storyboard sample, CSA abbrev template, and apprentice application. The California Simulation Alliance Simulation Scenario Template can be downloaded for free.
EM Sim Cases
Most emergency medicine residency programs use simulation in some capacity. The goal of EM Sim Cases is to showcase peer-reviewed cases that are already being used across the country. The main goals for sharing the simulation scenarios are to create a large database of cases for EM educators around the world to use and map all cases to clear educational objectives.
EM Sim Cases range from pediatric to geriatric and multiple specialties that present in emergency medicine. There is a wide array of cases ranging from dysrhythmias, endocrine emergencies, weather related events, traumas, and mental health.
MedPro Group Patient Safety & Risk Solutions: Simulation Training Sample Scenarios
MedPro Group is a Medical Insurance company. In 2017, they produced the Patient Safety & Risk Solutions: Simulation Training Sample Scenarios for anesthesia and surgical team, behavioral health de-escalation, emergency medicine pediatric patient, healthcare practice emergency, medical-surgical sepsis, senior care fall assessment, OB shoulder dystocia, and dental practice aggressive patient. These cases include a scenario background, learning objectives, target participants, expected outcomes, facilitator notes, equipment and supplies, patient & room scenario setup, handoff report, scenario phases with patient and SP responses, debriefing, and resources.
Medscape MedSim Patient Scenarios
Medscape offers free MedSim Scenarios for varying patient medical conditions, including pediatric and behavioral health. MedSims allows the participant to conduct immersive patient interviews, choose from more than 800 tests, select from 2000 potential diagnoses, consider 1.2 billion possible treatment options, conduct a decision review, and gain insight into the epidemiology, disease presentation, and treatment. To access these scenarios, participants first need to create an account. Then they will be able to review charts and complete the patient assessment component of a chosen scenario to ultimately develop a plan of care. There are approximately 200 patient scenarios to choose.
The SimTech Nursing Simulation Scenarios
TheSimTech provides a collection of donated scenarios for learners to use or modify. Scenarios include abdominal trauma from a motorcycle crash, bradycardia, difficult airway, sepsis, and more. There are currently 18 simulation scenarios available.
USC Standard Patient
This project provides freeware Virtual Standardized Patient (VSP) community scenarios for medical learners, residents, continuing medical education and medical educators. VSPs are virtual human avatars that can be conversed with (through typing or speech), that talk back, tell a story, and are coupled with a feedback system that allows learners to improve their performance. VSPs can tell their stories and can answer the most common medical questions that would be asked in a clinic environment. For learners, this resource offers the Standard Patient Hospital. For the educators, the Standard Patient Studio, the healthcare educator can learn to create an interactive virtual standard patient in less than one day and have access to published cases.
University of Washington Simulation Team Training Toolkit
The University of Washington’s Center for Healthy Sciences Interprofessional Education Research and Practice offers two nursing simulation scenario resources. The first, “Simulation Scenario Building Templates & Tools,” includes simulation scenario building templates and tools intended for educators involved in developing comprehensive and customized interprofessional simulations for health sciences students and trainees. These tools were developed by members of the UW Macy Grant Team with funding from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
The second, “Simulation Scenario Library,” includes interprofessional simulation scenarios developed at the University of Washington and are available for free to download and use. The scenarios can be modified to meet your needs and objectives.
Simulation Canada Supported Virtu-WIL
In 2021, a free and open-access Canadian virtual healthcare simulation scenario database was created called Virtu-WIL. Colleges and Institutes throughout Canada collaborated with Simulation Canada, which is an interprofessional but not-for-profit network dedicated to the advancement of healthcare simulation. Simulation Canada led the development of the Virtu-WIL virtual healthcare simulation program. The program was government funded with contributors to the project from 24 colleges and institutions and 13 universities across Canada.
The virtual clinical simulations in the Virtu-WIL program are based on and created from simulated clinical experiences. The process of creation of these virtual clinical simulations from a clinical backstory is done by Canadian educators. All of the virtual clinical simulations are based on clearly defined pedagogical objectives, which great time has been taken to consider. Most of the virtual clinical simulations can be operated on a desktop computer, but some of the virtual scenarios require a virtual reality (VR) headset.
Other PT Simulation Scenarios to Purchase or a Fee
There are other resources for Physical Therapy educators to incorporate into their simulation programs. These resources require a fee or charge. Some of these resources include:
DXR Development Company: VirtualPT Clinician
Educators can use VirtualPT Clinician to challenge their learners to apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom. VirtualPT Clinician cases require learners to assess and diagnose a ‘virtual’ patient’s problems, establish goals, and develop a management plan. Also, VirtualPT Clinician provides an easy-to-use framework to collect patient history information from an extensive bank of patient interview questions. Learners are able to form a problem list and a list of associated working hypotheses based on the patient data they collect.
VirtualPT Clinician allows learners to conduct ‘virtual’ physical exam procedures, including specialized measures used in physical therapy practice. They may view videos of patient movement and listen to real heart and lung sounds to make clinically significant observations. Further, learners can order diagnostic tests to support clinical decision-making, develop a list of final diagnoses, establish patient goals, and develop a list of interventions. Lastly, learners can review immediate feedback on their performance.
Simucase Platform
Simucase is an innovative educational platform that allows speech-language pathology, audiology, occupational therapy and physical therapy learners to evaluate and treat a library of virtual patients. This personalized learning platform is designed to help learners succeed by offering a means to observe, assess, diagnose and provide intervention for virtual patients through interactive clinical simulations and repeated practice. Founded in 2000, the resource uses the latest in healthcare simulation technology to simultaneously encourage critical thinking and facilitate alternative clinical education in a no-risk learning environment, increasing patient safety.
Within the platform, the patient video library includes more than 850 engaging video clips that cover valuable topic areas in speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy and audiology. The library of virtual patients has been expertly designed to measure skills and enhance clinical competency. Simucase currently offers over 100 clinical simulations with virtual patients. Before selecting a desired healthcare simulation, Simucase provides a brief explanation of the case and an estimate of how long the case will take to complete. Cases typically take between 40 and 75 minutes to complete. Learners can also filter cases based on profession, simulation, topic areas, ages, locations and release dates.
If you know of other free resources that can be included in this section, please email us.
