The objective of this review article is to determine whether simulation-based education could enhance the teaching of paediatrics to Australian medical students.
A literature search of PubMed and Embase was performed and from 595 identified articles, 34 papers were included in this review. There are several benefits of simulation teaching in paediatrics, including skill acquisition, improvement, maintenance, enhanced confidence, better understanding of human factors, improved teamwork skills and an opportunity to debrief as well as the potential for downstream improvements in patient outcomes. However, several challenges of simulation teaching for paediatrics were acknowledged, such as resource availability. Approaches to overcoming these challenges were proposed by the use of low-fidelity manikins, alternatives to standardised patients, the judicious use of simulation education, optimisation of student preparation for simulation sessions, the use of registrars as simulation facilitators and the utilisation of remote facilitation. With further research regarding the impact of simulation teaching on real-life clinical performance as well as methods to optimise its delivery, efficiency and cost-effectiveness, paediatric simulation teaching has considerable potential to enhance education for medical students in Australia.
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Paediatric simulation teaching for medical students: a review of current literature
