Can simulation really improve patient safety? The short answer is yes, simulation can be used to improve patient safety. The objectives of simulations can easily align with the objectives of healthcare quality and patient safety programs, making simulation an asset and simulationists valuable colleagues.
Simulation To Assess and Improve Response Protocols for Intraoperative Emergencies for Patients With COVID-19:
Reflections took place before, during, and after action. Activities addressed included:
- Pre-anesthetic preparation.
- Activation of emergency response teams.
- Management of personnel, information, and equipment.
- Communication in the context of an emergency requiring respiratory contagion precautions.
Examples of barriers included difficulty managing cognitive aids while wearing personal protective equipment and inability of cold zone supplemental personnel to see intraoperative physiologic monitors. Examples of facilitators included the ability of responding staff to revert to core training despite the unfamiliar workflow and the availability of sanitizable metal tables to bring additional supplies into the room.7
Simulation can be used to identify and mitigate latent safety threats.1 Simulation can be used as a test of change to implement quality improvement projects and can reveal information during root cause analysis that would not have otherwise been discovered.2 Simulation, coupled with debriefing, is a versatile tool that can be adapted to advance many quality and patient safety objectives.
Simulations allow learning without direct harm to patients and can be scheduled at the relative convenience of participants.3,4 Methods to support reflection or provide information, such as coaching, feedback, and debriefing, are essential components of learning from simulations. In many situations, learning from simulation, rather than during care for real patients, is an ethical imperative.5
This issue brief discusses practical strategies to advance patient safety through simulation and debriefing.
