Patient Simulation Experience in Family Medicine Residents Education

Abstract

Simulated clinical experiences allow family medicine residents to gain experience without a fear of harming a real patient. Our experience with Comorbid Patient Simulators (CPS) for health professional education will be presented along with a process to develop a simulated clinical experience that focuses on family medicine resident’s skill competence. Family medicine residents collaborated better with health care team members and they improved the quality and safety of their future practices. Almost three quarters of family medicine residents, 72 %, reported that teaching was realistic and 88 % gave the teaching an excellent overall rating. But only 65 % thought that simulators were still excellent compared with patients, showing that although simulators are useful they do not replace the need for good bedside teaching with real patients. Experiential learning in a safe and controlled virtual environment enhanced scholarship, quality and safety of patient care interventions and must be integrated in the family medicine resident’s curriculum.