International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background:

Over the last year, COVID-19 has constrained the capacity of education centres to deliver face-to-face simulation-based education (SBE). Restrictions on travel between NHS trusts necessitated development of remote simulation to allow learners to participate in training safely. The challenge to maintain training provision was increased due to the imposition of shielding requirements on a member of the education faculty requiring them to isolate at home over a 2-month period (February–April 2021).

Aim:

The aim of the study was to allow educators isolating at home to continue to support SBE, despite their physical absence from the training centre, by:

Simulating the patient role remotely.

Facilitating debrief from home. Observing SBE within the simulation suite and supporting subsequent discussions using video conferencing platforms.

Supporting delivery of human factors teaching sessions to Trust staff remotely.

Method/design:

To deliver SBE remotely for learners with remote faculty rested on three key requirements:

Collaborative and iterative development of scenarios that could be delivered effectively for learners remotely utilizing expertise from the simulation centres education and technical teams. The creation of scenarios optimized for remote delivery.

Effective communication and observation between remote faculty, centre-based staff and remote participants over Microsoft Teams (MST) to allow remote facilitation of debrief

Controlling and voicing the patient simulator from isolation at home via a desktop PC linked with simulation centre systems via a virtual private network (VPN) and utilizing the Zoom platform.

Implementation outline:

Faculty member shielding requirements lasted for approximately 8 weeks and during that period they were able to support a range of SBE courses;

Foundation years doctors (supported 14 courses)

Final-year medical students (supported 6 courses)

Surgical nurses (supported 1 course)

Burns speciality (supported 1 course)

Acute care skills: Nurse OSCE provision (supported 4 courses)

Human Factors teaching to trust staff (delivered 5 lectures)

Key equipment:

PC with dual screens to allow MST and Zoom software to be managed simultaneously to allow response to participant communication and interactions in real time.

Headset-Microphone to support effective fidelity within audio exchanges.

The facility to contribute to educational provision was mutually advantageous to all members of the educational faculty:

Off-loading some of the burden of training from those within the centre.

A positive influence on the mental health for the isolated.

Making remote simulation work possible was through whole team collaborative working.