Pedagogical Practices for Organizing Simulation-Based Healthcare Education

Abstract

Despite the positive findings on the results of simulation-based health-care education, what truly makes it successful remains unclear. We do not know enough about when and how the simulation-based learning environment (SBLE) should be applied. Thus, the specific aim of this thematic-review study was to determine what the facilitators’ peda-gogical activities are in the simulation-based education process. For this purpose, the study reviewed 83 previous studies in which the ped-agogical practices were explained or examined. Based on the literature review, the pedagogical practices have been clearly linked to facilita-tors’ activities before, during, or after simulation. Most of the research has focused on facilitators’ activities during simulation-based educa-tion, especially during the debriefing phase. Some studies have exam-ined pre-simulation activities, but the research concentrating on facili-tators’ post-simulation activities is limited. All in all, this thematic lit-erature review provided insights on the successful pedagogical prac-tices for implementing the simulation-based health-care education process. To further develop simulation-based health-care education and to optimize the use of such a learning environment, scholars should describe facilitators’ and learners’ activities more accurately; and they should use more rigorous research methods to analyze the teaching and the learning activities. Furthermore, such knowledge should be synthesized and used to develop pedagogical models and methods for simulation-based healthcare education and to integrate them into various learning contexts.