Human patient simulation to teach medical physiology concepts: A model evolved during eight years

Abstract

Worldwide, the use of human patient simulators in medical education has expanded rapidly as a means of enhancing the clinical and emergency response skills of health care students in a risk-free environment. The use of patient simulation for teaching of medical basic science concepts, however, is still in its infancy. At our medical school, ten years ago we had relatively inexpensive access to a high fidelity patient simulator which we used for teaching in the following courses: anatomy, medical immunology, and medical physiology. When this situation changed five years ago with the building of an education simulation center, the cost-to-benefit ratio for the use of simulators during the physiology class had to be reevaluated (anatomy and medical immunology discontinued simulation teaching after three years). This Best Practice paper presents our use and learning outcomes of low and high fidelity simulation for the past four years as part of a flipped physiology learning model and discusses its potential for widespread adoption for medical science teaching.