PG39 Establishment of a simulation centre- perspectives among health care professionals

Background Learning through simulation has gained momentum in India. Knowledge of establishing and maintaining a simulation center has become a prerogative for health care professionals.1 Summary of the Educational Programme The objectives of this interactive workshop using an open-ended survey was to (1) understand the targeted needs and related design of a Simulation Centre that is required, (2) enlist the resources required in setting up the Centre (3) discuss the need to develop Simulation Programs & Centre Policies and (4) to describe the challenges in sustaining a Simulation Centre. Summary of the Results The survey was conducted among 29 health care professionals of different disciplines as -medicine 16(55.17%), dental5(17.24%), nursing 3(10.34%), and pharmacy 5 (17.24%). The participants were divided into three groups with an equal number from each discipline. The session involved brainstorming among the group and the themes that emerged for each objective were as follows: The first objective for the need for Simulation-Based Education(SBE) gave rise to the following themes as learner needs, regulatory body requirement, reduction of errors, safe environment for learning, and quality patient care. The themes under the resource were budget, infrastructure in terms of manpower and material, equipment- high fidelity, low fidelity, or task trainers based on utility value, virtual reality devices, simulation tools. There was a uniform consensus among the participants regarding the need to improve on existing infrastructure. The need for simulation programs was to train the students, update skills for practitioners, Improve patient care, and enhance patient safety and enhance confidence. The probable challenges in implementing a Simulation Centre included Financial inputs, Resource, and training of faculty, assigning roles, technical issues, Coordination between courses in terms of scheduling classes in the simulation Centre, effective utilization need-based expansion of the center, policies, rules and regulation to meet accreditation, strategies to overcome these challenges included revenue generation as a long term objective, creation of a pool of instructors, periodical evaluation and feedback from all participants.2 Conclusion The survey enabled us to determine the facilitatory as well as inhibitory factors that were common among all health care professionals in the development of a Simulation Centre and implementation of simulation-based training to facilitate learning in order to provide quality care for patients. Recommendation In countries where simulation is introduced for healthcare education, training sessions, for setting up a simulation Centre, should address these concerns. Conflict of Interest Nil References Viggers S, Ostergaard D, Dieckmann P. How to include medical students in your healthcare simulation centre workforce. Advances in Simulation 2020;5(1). Dias J. Establishing a Simulation Centre in Karachi, Pakistan. COJ Nursing & Healthcare 2018;1(4).