Board 145 - Program Innovations Abstract Healthcare Simulation for High School Students

Abstract

Introduction/Background Simulation is fast becoming a new and preferred way of educating the adult learner.1 There have been many articles describing the techniques of simulation in medicine and beyond; however, there has been a paucity of articles in the young adult learner, namely high school students. Although still considered young learners, many high school students learn as adult learners do and simulation may be a great method to educate them. There is a big challenge in teaching this cohort, particularly in the realm of sexual education.2 For years there has been a struggle to teach these young learners child birth. Diagrams can only do so much. In the absence of these education tools, students typically turn to popular media’s idealized and unrealistic portrayals. To this end, a brief observational study was done. With local high school students, a simulated birth was performed and explained in real time. The goal of the study was to determine if there was an influence on high school students and if there was an interest in having more simulated experiences. Methods Over a three-day period, with three different groups of students, birthing simulations were demonstrated using the Gaumard Noelle birthing manikin. Participants were consented, local high school students enrolled in an afternoon science and health program sponsored by our medical center. During a series of 30-minute sessions, births were explained in real time by an emergency medicine physician, while a simulation technician was controlling the manikin delivery. Following each session, a short survey was administered to the students. The survey included six statements to which students were asked to rate their agreeability on a scale from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree). Participants were encouraged to provide comments for some of these statements. Seven of the 47 students (14.8%) submitted comments; most were female. There was a 100% response rate, with 96% completing all of the questions. Results: Conclusion The goal of the study was to determine if there is a need and/or desire for simulation in high school education. Overwhelmingly, the students felt that birth simulation was useful (avg 4.64) and had a desire for more simulation education (avg 4.56). Interestingly, most students felt the simulation would have no impact on their sexual choices (avg 2.38). One of the limitations of the study was that these high school students were self-selected, motivated learners, enrolled in an afterschool science program, with most wanting to pursue a career in healthcare; this may have skewed Results in favor of simulation. It is unclear if simulation would be as readily welcomed in other cohorts. A second limitation was that the majority of students were female; however, there were minimal difference between response averages across males and females. Our Results suggest that there may be a role for the use of simulation in high school education. Simulation has the potential to keep this cohort of learners engaged in the subject matter, as well as facilitate teaching challenging topics, such as health and sexual education. Although additional investigation is warranted, our study suggests that simulation may be useful in the education of young adults and that these learners may benefit from the involvement of their local academic simulation centers.