Simulation, a relevant pedagogical approach
Simulation is integrated into new pedagogies relevant for training healthcare professionals. It has been used for a long time in other fields such as aeronautics* and can be seen as a tool to test one's work environment.
In healthcare, "simulation has established itself in just a few years as an essential tool for training in high-risk professions".*
Since 2010, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) has been promoting simulation in healthcare, and a comprehensive guide was published in 2019 on this subject.
Simulation as a pretext for debriefing
According to the French National Authority for Health, healthcare simulation is " the use of hardware, virtual reality or a standardized patient, to reproduce healthcare situations or environments, to teach diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and to enable the rehearsal of processes, clinical situations or decision-making by a healthcare professional or team of professionals "*.
More generally, it involves playing a role in an environment that is partially or completely reconstructed in another time, in which the actions taken have no direct consequences for patients. This is the famous "never the first time on a patient ".
Healthcare simulation brings together several conditions conducive to learning. Indeed, the interest in simulation goes beyond simply practicing a skill and implementing a behavior. It allows one to understand an environment close to reality, to understand its complexity, but also to reflect on one's own thoughts, actions, and emotions. This is sometimes referred to as reflexivity or metacognition.
However, the quality of learning through simulation also depends on another key element: debriefing. This is a time for analysis and synthesis that follows the simulated situation. It is often said that simulation is only a pretext for debriefing.
The debriefing is defined by Pierre Pastré as "all sequences which aim, after the action, to lead learners to a reflexive (and retrospective) analysis of their own activity".*
The main objective of the debriefing is to stimulate learners' reflexivity and is a key moment for learning from a simulation. It allows learners to analyze their actions through feedback, but also to readjust them through group discussions with the trainer.
Its role is « to help participants understand, analyze, and synthesize their reasoning, emotions, and actions that occurred during the simulation in order to improve their future performance in similar situations ».*
The implementation of a debriefing
The debriefing must be carefully prepared by the trainers. The 3D model for Defusing, Discovering, Deepening offers an interesting structure. Other models exist.
Let's briefly present the RAS model (similar to 3D) whose process usually includes three phases.*
- The initial "reaction" (R) phase during which participants (or learners) can express their emotions and immediate feelings.
This involves releasing the pressure by verbalizing the experience, thus allowing for serene subsequent exchanges.
This is a descriptive phase where learners may be asked to describe the events that occurred and their corresponding reactions.
- The second phase, known as the "analysis" (A) phase, explores the actions taken and the reasoning behind them.
This phase, guided by the trainer-debrief, must meet the pedagogical objectives defined in the training program.
- The third phase is that of the 'synthesis' (S).
This phase can be done either by the trainer or by the learner, and its main purpose is to evaluate learning. It should also precisely define new objectives and improvement actions in terms of knowledge, skills, and behaviors.
SafeTeamAcademy and simulation
The founders of SafeTeam Academy are simulation trainers and have drawn on this educational expertise to innovate and offer a new way of simulating. Starting from the lived simulation in-situ, the ultimate in full-scale simulation, Dr. F. Martin and F. Jaulin created the perceived simulation: as in the cinema, learners are immersed in an immersive video film during which practices and routines will be questioned.
SafeTeam Academy uses simulation as a tool for improving the reliability of healthcare practices by drawing on a historical industry in France: cinema.
Thanks to feedback from field workers, immersive video training courses are scripted from real stories - from cases reported on the Patient Safety Database - thus making it possible to represent "real life."
The perceived realism and authenticity are key drivers of learning.
This experiential educational tool thus aids in the analysis of practices and the acquisition of new skills within the structures, thereby promoting the learning of healthcare professionals.
Moreover, to succeed in this challenge, SafeTeam Academy also employs pedagogical methods used in simulation. The goal: to develop metacognition. This involves reflecting on how we communicate, how we decide, how we work...
Metacognition is developed by the reflective questions asked during the film, inviting the caregiver, immersed in an emotionally engaging context, to question their practices.
The e-learning training courses offered by SafeTeam Academy have been designed to be complemented by face-to-face debriefing and facilitated discussions targeting the improvement of practices. In this sense, simulation centers and simulation trainers are real agents of change and are perfectly articulated to offer a hybrid experience (blended learning) that is the most powerful to date.
If you too would like to play your part in improving the reliability of care within your facilities, SafeTeam Academy training courses are for you! To find out more, write to: contact@safeteam.academy
