Its More than just Simulation. It's a New Paradigm in Acute Care

Abstract

Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery. Simulation based training is about repetitive actions and trials, until mastery is achieved. The beauty of this type of training is that errors made are powerful enough, to be the beginning of change in behavior and practice. Simulation has the track record of training and inculcation of both technical skills as well as non-technical skills, such as communications and teamwork. The former is critical in the practice of acute care whereby skills need to be mastered and executed in a timely fashion. Being able to do this could make a difference in saving a patient’s life. Non- technical skills on the other hand, need to be developed as well because lapses in this area (eg. wrong identification, poor and inaccurate communications, lack of team work, poor handing over, poor instructions delivery, not using closed loop communications) can happen and can lead to major consequences for our patients. Simulation is making a strong and significant impact on training and skills development in acute care. Its influence on competency and patient safety too is gaining more traction. Simulation can indeed be a valuable part of the learning and experience gathering process, but eventually it will not completely replace the ‘on the shop floor’ real life experiences a trainee or resident need to acquire, supported by good and sound trainers and mentors. Keywords: Acute care; Crew Resource Management; Patient safety; Simulation; Trauma; Teams