Simulation Program
General information
Healthcare professionals use simulation for hands-on learning on how to care for patients and how to respond to critical situations. Simulation can include low fidelity task trainers (i.e. IV arms, IO legs, intubation mannequins) as well as high fidelity patient simulators, standardized patients and the use of virtual reality. Paediatric patient simulators come in a variety of sizes, from neonates and infants to child-sized mannequins. They can blink, cry, breathe and feature audible heart sounds and palpable pulses.
Simulation enhanced education provides healthcare teams with hands-on training without risk to patients. An instructor can reproduce various scenarios ranging from an allergic reaction to cardiac arrest using a patient simulator. The SickKids Simulation Program is advancing the Learning Institute’s mandate of offering new approaches to education and training, bringing true to life experiences to learners.
The Simulation Program at SickKids works collaboratively with other healthcare facilities that have an interest in simulation.
Program Overview
Increasingly complex procedures in medicine require not only individual skill acquisition and practice, but also interprofessional team skill development and practice. Simulation provides novice to seasoned healthcare professionals the opportunity to participate in hands-on training without any risk to patients. It creates a realistic environment in which students can practice and develop skills before they enter a clinical situation, increasing both confidence and competence in overall patient care.
Through simulation, an individual or a team can repeatedly practice routine procedures, recognize and treat rare conditions and practice life-saving techniques in a real-time environment. Using a patient simulator, an instructor can reproduce various scenarios from basic patient interactions to life-threatening critical situations. Simulation-based training also allows health care teams to improve their teamwork, leadership, judgment and communication skills.
The SickKids Simulation Program is broad in scope and includes both procedural skills training and high fidelity training. Simulation can be delivered in the Simulation Centre, throughout the Hospital or offsite.
Vision
A leading program in simulation-based education to enhance healthcare delivery for children.
Mission
The SickKids Simulation Program, a collaborative and innovative education initiative, partners with members of the SickKids community in the development and delivery of high quality simulation-enhanced education for the purposes of improved patient safety and world-class quality care for children.
Educational Goals
The SickKids Simulation Program strives to deliver quality education that is:
- Focused on facilitating learning and enhancing performance
- Relevant to the level of learner and appropriately contextualized
- Based on current evidence, up-to-date technology and reflects the highest standards in education development and delivery
- Accessible to all learners
- Efficient
- Innovative
- Supportive of enhancing interprofessional education/practice
Scholarship and Research Goals
The SickKids Simulation Program strives to build theory-based educational innovations in simulation programming by:
- Using simulation as a method to better understand how healthcare professionals learn for the purposes of theory building and development of innovations in simulation.
- Understanding both planned and emergent outcomes and processes in simulation programming for the purpose of program improvement and knowledge building.
- Testing and advancing the use of technology to support education and patient care.
Patient Safety Goals
The SickKids Simulation Program strives to enhance patient safety by:
- Providing high-quality interprofessional education opportunities, designed to enhance the delivery of safe and competent care in paediatric practice
- Striving to ensure the translation and use of patient safety principles, practices, behaviours, attitudes