Board 327 - Research Abstract Impact of Simulation-Based Medical Education on Patient Outcomes

Abstract

Introduction/Background There has been recent exponential growth of research publications to substantiate the premise that practice via simulation does in fact improve patient safety, provider skill and retention and non-technical skills in the clinical domain. Our research question is: Can simulation-based medical education (SBME) efforts be translated into improved patient outcomes and patient safety in the clinical environment? Methods SBME was defined as an intervention with manikins, animal models, task trainers, computer based simulations or standardized patients. A SBME intervention was defined as an educational activity that resembled an aspect of clinical care outside of the patient care environment. In the PICO format: any healthcare providers implement simulation-based medical education (SBME) training compared to other training methodologies or no extra training, result in a time based change in patient care outcomes. The patient care outcome was evaluated at the T2 - process of care for patients, simulation based manikin or T3 level - patient outcomes, population or system of care outcomes. This review adheres to standards of quality for reporting meta-analyses such as QUOROM, MOOSE, and PRISMA. Data analysis was done in Review Manager (RevMan, Copenhagen). From a pool of 13317 articles, we identified 87 articles discussing patient care outcomes. These articles were published from 1952 to April 2012 in the English language, with SBME as the education intervention; patient care and safety as the outcome. Articles were excluded if time based data was not available for subsequent analysis. In the end, 11 studies were included in this analysis because they included procedure time as the outcome. Results We pooled effect sizes using random effects. Heterogenity was large (I2 = 94%) in the analysis. In comparison with control group, pooled effect size was 3.18 (95% CI, 2.45-10.32) for procedure time. See the graph below for details. Conclusion In comparison with the control condition, simulation training is consistently associated with large effects for procedure time.