Participation in a High Fidelity Patient Simulation Prevents Knowledge Loss after One Week in Undergraduate Students

Abstract

High fidelity patient simulations (HFPS) have been used successfully in hospital training, medical education, and nursing to improve clinical, communication and procedural skills. Some reports have indicated that HFPS is underutilized for teaching basic science (Heyler R, Adv in Physio Educ, 2016). There are limited studies elucidating the benefits/challenges of using HFPS to learn physiology in undergraduate learners. One potential benefit is that HFPS allow students to apply physiology through recall and retrieval. The purpose of this study is to determine if HFPS enhances long‐term learning (1 week) more than re‐reading the material.METHODSSeventy‐six biomedical undergraduate students participated in the study and were assigned to one of two groups. The schematic for the study is included as an image. Both groups took a pre‐simulation quiz before reading the assigned text on pulmonary fibrosis and asthma (4 pages). All quizzes consisted of 10 true/false questions based on the text. The BLACK group (n=35) was given 15 mins to read the text and then another 15 mins to re‐read. The GOLD group (n=41) was given 15 mins to read the text and then participate in an asthma HFPS (intervention) for 15 mins. Afterwards, both groups took a post‐simulation quiz 1. One week later, both groups took another post‐simulation quiz 2. The pre‐simulation and post‐simulation quizzes 1 and 2 were all different, but the same between groups.RESULTSThere was a significant increase in the average number of questions correct between the pre‐simulation and post‐simulation quiz 1 in both groups. However, there were no differences between the two groups at either point. One week later, the BLACK group had a significant decrease in the number of correct answers on post‐simulation quiz 2 compared to post‐simulation quiz 1. There was no significant decrease in the number of correct questions on post‐simulation quiz 2 compared to post‐simulation quiz 1 for the GOLD group.CONCLUSIONSThe data suggest that HFPS may provide a platform to decrease the amount of knowledge loss after one week in undergraduate students. This may be due to HFPS acting as a method to promote recall and retrieval in students.Support or Funding InformationN/A