The "Warrior" system: a new useful emergency simulator to train clinical pharmacists in emergency medicine.

Abstract

Clinical pharmacists are indispensable providers of emergency medical services. However, the training of Chinese clinical pharmacists in medical emergency skills is apparently insufficient.The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of the “Warrior” emergency simulator application in the emergency medical education of clinical pharmacy students (CP students).The “Warrior” system, which contains a pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics-linked model and a drug database, was successfully employed to train CP students and improve their capability to deal with various medical emergency situations. Both an objective (in-class) test and the subjective Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) were administered to 20 CP students, randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group, to estimate the teaching effect of the “Warrior” system.The scores of CP students from the intervention group were significantly higher (P < .01) in the in-class test than the scores of students from the control group due to the diverse situational teaching using the “Warrior” system. The results of the DREEM showed that CP students from the intervention group obtained considerably better (P < .01) marks for “students’ perceptions of learning” and “students’ perceptions of atmosphere” than those from the control group. Furthermore, the intervention group scored much higher (P < .01) than the control group on the total DREEM.The “Warrior” system provides an excellent training path for clinical pharmacists that supplies a more realistic clinical simulation experience and significantly improves the teaching effect. The “Warrior” system exhibits high potential for future development in emergency medical education.