When is synthetic sufficient? Ethical considerations and alternatives in simulation-based ultrasound education.

Simulation-based education (SBE) has become an integral part of training in health professions education, offering a safe environment for learners to acquire and refine clinical skills. As a non-ionising imaging modality, ultrasound is a domain of health professions education that is particularly supported by SBE. Central to many simulation programs is the use of animal models, tissues, or body parts to replicate human anatomy and physiology.

Silicone as a smart solution for simulating soft tissue-an iterative approach to developing a high-fidelity sustainable training model for laparoscopic appendectomy.

Background: Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) is an effective treatment for the surgical care of appendicitis, with this minimally invasive approach allowing patients to typically spend less time in hospital and promptly return to normal life activities. Residents can acquire the competence and confidence needed in a safe learning environment prior to real patient encounters through simulation-based learning of these techniques. We propose a low cost, sustainable, high fidelity simulation-based training model for LA to compliment regular resident practice of these skills.

A novel low-cost high-fidelity porcine model of liver metastases for simulation training in robotic parenchyma-preserving liver resection.

In the era of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), parenchyma-preserving liver resections are gaining prominence with the potential to offer improved perioperative outcomes without compromising oncological safety. The surgeon learning curve remains challenging, and simulation plays a key role in surgical training. Existing simulation models can be limited by suboptimal fidelity and high cost.

Effectiveness of hybrid simulation training on medical student performance in whole-task consultation of cardiac patients: The ASSIMILATE EXCELLENCE randomized waitlist-controlled trial.

Background: Assessment of comprehensive consultations in medicine, i.e. a complete history, physical examination, and differential diagnosis, is regarded as authentic tests of clinical competence; however, they have been shown to have low reliability and validity due to variability in the real patients used and subjective examiner grading.

Developing a high fidelity, low cost simulation model for retrosigmoid craniotomy and microvascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve.

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia is a very painful condition that may require a surgical approach as treatment, which is typically retrosigmoid craniotomy followed by microvascular decompression. Due to the limited margin for error when operating in the small triangular window of the cerebellopontine angle and the infrequency of this condition, the operating room can present a difficult learning environment for surgical trainees. Our aim is to create a synthetic, low-cost, high-fidelity, and largely reusable simulation model that will enable neurosurgical trainees to practice these procedural steps in a safe learning environment.

Developing and Implementing a Training Programme for Medical Students to Become Peer Educators in Simulation-Based Education.

Unlabelled: Peer assisted learning is a useful strategy for medical students to learn from one another in a safe, structured capacity. As a pilot, we designed a training programme in collaboration with medical students to equip them with the knowledge, skills and abilities to act effectively as peer educators in simulation-based education.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.

Communication and Contextual Factors in Robotic-Assisted Surgical Teams: Protocol for Developing a Taxonomy.

Background: Robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) has been rapidly integrated into surgical practice in the past few decades. The setup in the operating theater for RAS differs from that for open or laparoscopic surgery such that the operating surgeon sits at a console separate from the rest of the surgical team and the patient. Communication and team dynamics are altered due to this physical separation and visual barriers imposed by the robotic equipment.

Remote feedback in endovascular simulation training: a mixed-methods study.

Background: There is an increasing need to increase simulation-based learning opportunities for vascular surgery residents in endovascular skills training. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of remote expert instructional feedback of endovascular simulation-based education, as a means of increasing training opportunities in this area for vascular surgery residents.

Methods: A mixed-methods study design was adopted.

Design and utilisation of a novel, high-fidelity, low-cost, hybrid-tissue simulation model to facilitate training in robot-assisted partial nephrectomy.

Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) has rapidly evolved as the standard of care for appropriately selected renal tumours, offering key patient benefits over radical nephrectomy or open surgical approaches. Accordingly, RAPN is a key competency that urology trainees wishing to treat kidney cancer must master. Training in robotic surgery is subject to numerous challenges, and simulation has been established as valuable step in the robotic learning curve.

Developing a clamshell thoracotomy training model to support hybrid teaching in simulation-based education.

Objective: Thoracotomy is an acute, time-sensitive procedure. Simulation-based education provides a safe-learning platform to learn these techniques under close supervision.

Methods: We used the spiral model and concepts of functional fidelity to guide the evolutionary design and fabrication of a hybrid thoracotomy simulator.

Collating evidence to support the validation of a simulated laparotomy incision and closure-training model.

Background: It is essential to evaluate the functionality of surgical simulation models, in order to determine whether they perform as intended. In this study, we assessed the use of a simulated laparotomy incision and closure-training model by collating validity evidence to determine its utility as well as pre and post-test interval data.

Method: This was a quantitative study design, informed by Messick's unified validity framework.

A comparative analysis of student, educator, and simulated parent ratings of video-recorded medical student consultations in pediatrics.

Background: Simulation-based education (SBE) affords learners opportunities to develop communication skills, including those related to pediatrics. Feedback is an integral part of SBE, and while much research into feedback from multiple sources exists, the findings are mixed. The aim of this comparative study was to replicate some of this work in a novel area, pediatric medical education, to better understand how multisource feedback (self, educator, and simulated parent) may inform learning and curriculum design.

: A constructivist grounded theory study of simulation culture in four professional domains in Ireland.

Purpose: In simulation-based education (SBE), educators integrate their professional experiences to prepare learners for real world practice and may embed unproductive stereotypical biases. Although learning culture influences educational practices, the interactions between professional culture and SBE remain less clear. This study explores how professional learning culture informs simulation practices in healthcare, law, teacher training and paramedicine.

Gender Equality Training for Students in Higher Education: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

Background: The principles of gender equality are integral to the goals, targets, and indicators of all sustainable development goals. Higher education institutes can be powerful agents for promoting gender equality, diversity, and inclusion not only in the higher education context but also in society as a whole. To address and overcome gender inequality in the higher education environment, experts posit that change needs to occur from day 1 of the student's academic experience.

Training simulated participants for role portrayal and feedback practices in communication skills training: A BEME scoping review: BEME Guide No. 86.

Background: Providing feedback is a key aspect of simulated participants' (SPs) educational work. In teaching contexts, the ability to provide feedback to learners is central to their role. Suboptimal feedback practices may deny learners the valuable feedback they need to learn and improve.

Critical design choices in healthcare simulation education: a 4C/ID perspective on design that leads to transfer.

Background: Healthcare simulation education often aims to promote transfer of learning: the application of knowledge, skills, and attitudes acquired during simulations to new situations in the workplace. Although achieving transfer is challenging, existing theories and models can provide guidance.

Recommendations: This paper provides five general recommendations to design simulations that foster transfer: (1) emphasize whole-task practice, (2) consider a cognitive task analysis, (3) embed simulations within more comprehensive programs, (4) strategically combine and align simulation formats, and (5) optimize cognitive load.

A Mixed Methods Study Identifying the Competencies of Health Care Simulation Technicians.

Introduction: Health care simulation technicians (HSTs), also referred to as simulation operations specialists, are essential to the delivery of simulation-based education. The HST role draws on a broad range of knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies. However, because of the neoteric nature of the HST role and the ambiguity surrounding the core responsibilities of the position, it has proved difficult to identify the competencies required to perform this role successfully.

Preparing for Pediatrics: Experiential Learning Helps Medical Students Prepare for Their Clinical Placement.

Despite the importance of effective communication skills in pediatrics, clinical placements may inadequately prepare undergraduate students to communicate with children. The integration of non-clinical interactions with healthy children within a pediatric curriculum has the potential to enhance learning. We designed and implemented a novel course involving experiential learning, including video-recorded consultations with simulated parents (SPs), team-based scenarios with a pediatric mannequin, interactions with healthy children through a pre-school visit and medical student led health workshops for primary school children.

Their OSCE, not your Oscar: Simulated Patients' Perspectives.

Introduction: Simulated patients (SPs) are involved widely in the support of health care education for communication and consultation skills teaching. This study aimed to explore SPs' perspectives of their role and contribution to health professions education.

Methods: A qualitative approach was used.

Evaluation of medical student retention of clinical skills following simulation training.

Background: Adequate clinical skills training is a challenge for present day medical education. Simulation Based Education (SBE) is playing an increasingly important role in healthcare education worldwide to teach invasive procedures. The impact of this teaching on students along with retention of what is taught is not fully understood.

How Anesthetic, Analgesic and Other Non-Surgical Techniques During Cancer Surgery Might Affect Postoperative Oncologic Outcomes: A Summary of Current State of Evidence.

The question of whether anesthetic, analgesic or other perioperative intervention during cancer resection surgery might influence long-term oncologic outcomes has generated much attention over the past 13 years. A wealth of experimental and observational clinical data have been published, but the results of prospective, randomized clinical trials are awaited. The European Union supports a pan-European network of researchers, clinicians and industry partners engaged in this question (COST Action 15204: Euro-Periscope).

Evaluation of simulation methods for teaching peripheral arterial examination to medical students.

Physical examination is a critical component of medical practice yet the focus on efficient patient turnover has impacted the availability of patients with clinical findings willing to be examined by students and skills' teaching is not consistent across clinical rotations. This work evaluates simulation methodologies for teaching of the peripheral arterial examination and evaluates whether skills learnt are transferable to clinical practice. Second-year medical students were taught peripheral arterial examination on a SimMan 3G or with simulated patients (SPs).

Protective role of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in experimental lung injury: evidence of a lipoxin A4-mediated effect.

Background: Polymorphoneutrophils (PMNs) are activated by inflammatory mediators following splanchnic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R), potentially injuring organs such as the lung. As a result, some patients develop respiratory failure following abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Pulmonary cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 protects against acid aspiration and bacterial instillation via lipoxins, a family of potent anti-inflammatory lipid mediators.

Weak coupling magnetism in Ce4Pt12Sn25: a small exchange limit in the Doniach phase diagram.

Magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, specific heat, and electrical resistivity studies on single crystals of Ce4Pt12Sn25 reveal an antiferromagnetic transition at T(N) = 0.19 K, which develops from a paramagnetic state with a very large specific heat coefficient (C/T) of 14 J mol(-1) K(-2)-Ce just above T(N). On the basis of its crystal structure and these measurements, we argue that a weak magnetic exchange interaction in Ce4Pt12Sn25 is responsible for its low ordering temperature and a negligible Kondo-derived contribution to physical properties above T(N).