MEDICAL SIMULATION: MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

Medical simulation is now widespread as an integral part of medical education. Simulation begins with an important moral claim: we must do the best we can to keep patients safe while training the next generation of clinicians and retraining current clinicians so that they are kept up-to-date. As a powerful teaching tool, simulation allows practicing communication, decision-making, practical skills and leadership as well as evaluation which can be standardized and poses no risk to patients associated with experiential learning conducted in the actual clinical setting. It is also the fact that simulation raises ethical questions of its own. That training is not simply technical. It is also a way to learn and practice dealing with the emotional challenges of real-life ethical situations. Simulation also provides a safe zone for students to make practical skills and communication mistakes and to develop moral imagination. Despite the growing acceptance of clinical simulation to enhance quality and safety in medical education, the question of whether students actually acquire and transfer the ethical principles that takes place in a simulation setting is unknown.