Mission
To create an immersive simulated learning environment for health care practitioners and students, which advances the development, application and research of clinical knowledge, judgment, and skills through the use of simulation-based technologies. To utilize best practices in simulation education that promotes patient safety and improved practitioner performance.
Goals
- Increase the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of patient care outcomes through innovative and interdisciplinary training.
- Facilitate student learning in a safe and controlled environment.
- Promote the development and integration of a simulation-enhanced curriculum into nursing and health care education.
- Utilize methodologically sound research to measure the impact of simulation-based activities on the development of clinical judgment and clinical practice.
Philosophy of Simulation Education
Competent clinical nursing practice is grounded in clinical wisdom, a complex pattern of knowing that emerges from situated, experiential, reflective learning that draws on a broad base of content knowledge.
Simulation education is situated by design (the scenario), experiential in pedagogy (the simulation event) and reflective (the various forms of debriefing). These characteristics make simulation education a powerful contributor to clinical wisdom development.
Simulation education exists at varying degrees of technical complexity ranging from simple demonstration of concepts using material objects, role play, standardized patients and interactive games to flat screen simulations, high-fidelity manikins, and virtual reality.
Simulation education is integral to professional nursing education, in both teaching and evaluative forms, to attain competence in technical skills prior to direct care of patients, to assure more consistent student experience with clinical situations than is possible in the clinical setting where the patient population can’t be predicted or controlled, and to prepare learners for high-risk/low-frequency conditions and situations.
Simulation education is not a replacement for clinical education, but rather a necessary complement that increases student exposure to clinical best practices, ultimately enhancing competency and safety.
Simulation’s integration of immediate and intensive debriefing, an activity that is not always possible in clinical settings, fosters the development of self-aware, reflective practitioners.
Because simulation education is integral to clinical nursing education, all nurse educators need to be competent in its use. To that end, all full-time nurse educators in clinical programs must be educated and mentored in all aspects of simulation education (creation of scenarios, use of technology, the role of the technician, participation in scenarios and multiple forms of debriefing). It is expected that educators utilizing simulation in their curriculum will maintain a current knowledge base in this pedagogy.
