Simulators are Under-used

Abstract

I thoroughly enjoyed the article “Assessing Competency With the Use of Human Patient Simulation in the Emergency Department” in the September 2009 issue. This article discussed how patient simulators are being used to determine nurse competency in the emergency department. Gomez did an excellent job of explaining how competency can be measured with the simulators and how different scenarios can unfold with the simulator. She also discussed the benefits of patient simulators and how helpful they really are. I believe a discussion about the under-use of simulators should have been added to the article. Nurse competency is an important factor in safe patient care, and patient simulation has been shown to reduce medical errors and promote critical thinking.1Beyea S Kobolovich L Human patient simulation: A teaching strategy.AORN J. 2004; 80: 738-742Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar The human patient simulator has many advantages that should be utilized. The ability of a program to react to interventions such as medication given provides an amazing learning opportunity. As a nursing student who attends a college that has a human patient simulator, I have had the opportunity to work with it and learned much from the experience. However, I can only count a few times when we were able to use the simulator. I believe that simulators should be used more often both to test competency and as a learning tool. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this article. Assessing Competency With the Use of Human Patient Simulation in the Emergency DepartmentJournal of Emergency NursingVol. 35Issue 5PreviewAn ED nurse walks into the education department of her hospital, where the clinical educator is waiting. Instead of being greeted by the clinical educator, a manikin lying on a hospital bed says “Hello.” The nurse stops and thinks to herself, “What is going on?” The clinical educator begins to laugh and says, “Welcome. This is Simon, our patient simulator. He will be helping to assess your competencies today.” This is nursing education now, and wow, has it changed. Full-Text PDF