Implementation of Realistic Simulation as Patient Safety Improvement Method

Currently, the issue of patient safety has been hotly debated both nationally and internationally, because this is a relevant issue for the health professionals' practice and to improve the quality of patient care. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report released in 2000, a significant number of deaths in hospitals every year were related to preventable causes and medical errors. These deaths were equal to mortality numbers due to diseases such as cancer and HIV and car acidentes.

In this scenario, death due to errors in the process of care achieved world relevance and in 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) released the World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution 55.18, addressing the priorities related to patient safety in the quality of care. In 2004, was created the World Alliance for Patient Safety on the occasion of the 57th World Health Assembly. The World Alliance has defined programs for patient safety that must be adopted by all member countries and therefore, by Brazil.

The general actions proposed by the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety are oriented in five activities among which, the efforts to strengthen the training in patient safety worldwide. It stimulates the inclusion of a curriculum guide for patient safety in health professional training courses .

Aspects of patient safety in medicine administration involve many health professionals. However, nurses have an important role because they are responsible for administration and thus, occupy the last stage between the medication and the error. For all these reasons, safety in medication administration is a compulsory and transversal theme in the training of nursing professionals.

In this context of search for improvements in health care planning, a new practice concept of teaching and learning has been developed, aiming at training professionals and training the health professionals who have already graduated.

Interests in using realistic simulation techniques have emerged lately with the objective to encourage improvements in safety on patient care. The simulation technique amplifies the experience of health professionals through educational actions guided by experiences that happen in the real world, therefore, interactions must happen in a way that preserves the most realistic aspects as possible. The adoption of simulation in health comes from successful references of using this technique for industrial purposes and in the armed forces. It is considered an innovative technique in health.

In high fidelity simulation, students and professionals experience clinical cases that replicate real-world scenarios. This strategy enables teaching innovations, improves clinical thinking in stressful situations, and prevents the exposure of patients to risks.

The realistic simulation has been integrated in the education of nurses and doctors over the last years, but is not fully implemented yet. Despite the recommendations for using simulation, its increasing integration in education, and the concrete evidence that its use promotes a better prepare of health professionals for performance in clinical practice, the empirical evidences of its impact on patient outcomes are still under developed.

Besides the realistic manikin-based simulation, virtual simulation is another way of simulation that has been proven effective in learning strategies, contributing to the retention of knowledge and improvement of nursing students' clinical performance.

From the increasing use of technology in health and the complexity of patients, new ways of learning have been shaped and developed as innovative teaching methods in health care . All these alternatives have the promising intention of reducing the deterioration of learning and of clinical performance over time, making professionals and students able to monitor patients in the best possible way, establish goals, priorities and better treatments.

An advantage is the possibility of students practicing their skills in an environment where mistakes can be made and corrected without causing damages and risks to patient safety. In addition, the construction of knowledge is established through representative situations of day-to-day reality in professional practice, when students themselves participate as patient-actors in a totally controlled environment, as well as protected from risks. At the end of the activity, students and/or professionals involved in the simulation can give feedback of their learning and, from group discussions and those with the teacher, is formed knowledge based on self-knowledge and confidence .

PURPOSE

Primary purpose

To compare the use of high fidelity simulation with traditional education as innovative method in the process of teaching and learning.

Secondary purpose

To propose the creation of a high fidelity scenario related to nursing care in medication administration;

To identify the gains in theoretical and practical learning and in self-confidence of nursing undergraduate students after undergoing high fidelity simulation in medication administration;

To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of using high fidelity simulation in the process of teaching and learning.