About Mobile Simulation Training

Simulation-based training involves immersion of the participant in a realistic situation (scenario) that is created within a physical space (simulator) that replicates the real environment in a way that the participant can for the moment, “suspend their disbelief”.

The sights and sounds in the simulation center, along with training as a team, help to reproduce a simulated clinical environment that provides some of the same physical challenges and mental stressors one would have in the real, non-simulated environment. It is important for health care teams to be able to train to function in these stressful, chaotic environments, to understand each other’s roles, and to learn how to communicate in crisis situations.

Simulation training can provide multiple intense clinical experiences in a short period of time. The experiences provided in the simulation environment can be customized to fit the experience of the participant, whether they are novice or expert practitioners. Because the activities in the simulator pose no risk to patients or to professional liability, participants are allowed to witness the natural evolution of patients based on the actions performed. Why is confidentiality in the simulator so important?

Development of complex scenarios that integrate physicians, nurses, and allied health care personnel requires a tremendous amount of time and effort, and therefore clinical details of each scenario must be kept confidential to avoid compromising a scenario that will be used for other teams in the future. Any discussion of individual or team performance is confined within the context of the debriefing session and never leaves the simulator. We do encourage you to share your experiences with simulation training in general with your colleagues. For example, sharing that you had a respiratory distress scenario, and that you were able to practice tracheal intubation, and how helpful it was practicing with your team without going into details is appropriate.

Because of these issues, you will be asked to review and sign a confidentiality agreement stating that you will not discuss the details of your simulator experience with others, including your colleagues. You also will be requested to sign a photo consent form in order to be digitally recorded during your scenarios. The recordings are used for purposes of debriefing, course evaluation, and instructor evaluation and feedback.

Children’s of Minnesota’s course instructors are also required to sign confidentiality agreements in order to insure that discussion of individual performance during the scenarios takes place only during the debriefings and does not leave the simulator.