High Fidelity Simulation

High Fidelity Simulation

Introduction

Simulation can be defined as the art of recreating a clinical scenario in a fake and artificial set up. This simulation has been an important and effective part of the nursing programs curriculum for years. It is an addition to clinical experience and has made it possible to practice in a controlled environment. It helps the students by enabling them to practice any clinical procedure before actually performing on a real patient. Therefore great value is placed on the idea of simulation.

Recently though, the concept of high fidelity simulation that has a higher level of sophistication and the increased practicality that it gives to the laboratory settings has made it possible to use simulation as an alternative for actual experiences related to the clinic. High fidelity simulation means structured learning experiences for the students that use a technologically complex and superior computerized dummy which is the Human Patient Simulator (HPS). The human patient simulator is anatomically accurate and reproduces physiological responses. The students are placed into decision making events in environments that are similar to real clinical settings. The instructors have it in their hands to manage the responses of the mannequin and the human patient simulator can give responses to the students' interventions. (Mikkelsen et al, 2007) .

Discussion

The idea of simulation and using it in education is of great importance for the regulators. From their perspective, the idea of simulation provides many advantages. But there are a number of disadvantages as well. It is not clear exactly just how much this idea of simulation helps students in improving their knowledge, skill, critical thinking and helping them to develop and improve their professional judgement.. It is also not very clear that at what position this idea of simulation stands when it is compared with the real and traditional clinical methods. Also, there is very less proof about how much it helps in building confidence. Because of all these questions and the inability to acquire evidence regarding the answers of these question, it is undecided as to what level does the idea of high infidelity simulation would be a proper and a suitable alternate for real clinical settings that are mandatory now by the state regulations for nursing programs. Therefore it is very important to address these questions and to find out whether high fidelity simulation manages to give us a n efficient strategy that is the same as real clinical experiences. The advantages and disadvantages of the high fidelity simulation are described below:

Advantages

The major advantage of high fidelity simulation is that it gives no direct risk to the patient. If the students are unable to apply the procedures in effectively because they are new to it or for any other reason, they would be doing it on a fake mannequin instead of a real live patient. Therefore, simulation gives them a chance to train themselves about rare and critical events in a safe environment that is controlled by the instructors. They can practice whenever they want without ...