Medical Simulation Specialist 1

The Medical Simulation Specialist I is a 5-week online course created to fulfill the need to train technical assistants in medical simulation. Simulation using patient manikins can place a high cognitive load on medical educators facilitating students in a scenario. Medical subject matter experts who facilitate simulation often benefit from assistance with the computer-manikin interface and simulation environment. Volunteers, staff or students can be trained to assist facilitators as simulation specialists. The standards of best practice in simulation operations list criterion specific to the role of simulation specialist’s including understanding of the principles of simulation in education and teaching methods, set up, operating and maintaining equipment, staging, and the use of moulage. This course introduces the student to the use of simulation as a strategy to train healthcare providers, terminology, technology, robotics and a practicum. Merrill’s principles of instruction (2002) were used to plan student learning centered on relevant real-world tasks. Bloom’s Taxonomy revised in 2001 was used to develop the cognitive framework and objectives in the curriculum. Laulima was used as the learning management system (LMS). Since the last week of the online course is a practicum in a simulation room, it was a challenge to develop a method to allow students who were off-site to complete this module. However, various methods were developed to enable the student to fulfill the final checklist and will likely be refined through instructor and leaner collaboration.