State of the science: the doll is dead: simulation in palliative care education

Abstract

ObjectivesBoth simulation and high-fidelity simulation involving manikins, clinical training suites, wards, computer programs and theatres have established themselves in medical undergraduate and postgraduate education. Popular among students, they have been shown to be effective learning tools. Contrasted with this is the potential risk to patients and their proxy associated with learning ‘at the bedside’, which can pose a real challenge in medical and palliative settings. The need for education and training methods that do not expose the patient to preventable communication blunders from less experienced practitioners is a priority.MethodsHere, we provide a summary review on the current literature and evidence for simulation and high-fidelity simulation in palliative and end-of-life care settings, and discuss potential uses of technologies including virtual and augmented reality in future training.ResultsThe most common form of simulation in palliative medicine is often an actor-based role-play scenario with particular emphasis on communication skills. This is expensive and time-consuming to set up. Less evidence was found on the use of high-fidelity simulation in end-of-life care teaching.ConclusionPalliative medicine has been slow to adapt to an educational method and environment that now is widely used across other areas of healthcare. There has been less emphasis on training with manikins and even less on using computer simulation and virtual reality environments to recreate challenging end-of-life care scenarios. We provide some examples of where this could benefit the curriculum.

Performativity, identity formation and professionalism: Ethnographic research to explore student experiences of clinical simulation training

“…The use of simulation with undergraduate students within clinical training courses has recently been researched in terms of student preparedness to attend real-life ward calls[ 1 ], fidelity[ 2 , 3 ], stress [ 4 ], patient management and error recognition [ 5 ], teamwork[ 1 , 6 , 7 ], and ethics of simulated death [ 8 ]. Research has also attended to the extent by which simulation training may be more effective than traditional clinical education [ 9 , 10 ].…”

“Online Training Is Great but Human Interaction Is Better”: Training Preferences of VA Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Consult Teams

“…12 There is growing interest in how palliative care education and training is delivered, with an emerging body of research examining education and training preferences for computerbased versus in-person approaches. [13][14][15] While evidence exists for the use and acceptability of self-directed Webbased continuing medical education for increasing knowledge, improving confidence, and engendering adoption of clinical practices, 16 little is known about the education and training preferences of members of hospital-based interdisciplinary PCCTs. A systematic review of classroom-based and distance-learning palliative care education for health and social service professionals noted the relative lack of reports on multiprofessional training programs.…”

Overview of the holographic-guided cardiovascular interventions and training – a perspective

“…Other MR applications, HoloPatient, which is a MR-based learning tool for nurses and related medical schools, was proposed by Pearson in 2018 [11]. Also, other educational institutions start to use MR in everyday training in the various fields, from already mentioned anatomy [48], including neuroanatomy [49] and nursing [50,51] to even palliative care [52].…”