Making Nursing Mistakes Without Patient Risk: Simulation to the Rescue!

Resumen

Perils to patient safety, the bulk of the responsible errors involving medications, account for unfathomable costs within our healthcare system (IOM, 1999; CPSI, 2003). Patient safety has been and continues to be in jeopardy and is of paramount importance in the Canadian healthcare system. Patient safety initiatives have included examination of current educational strategies and new initiatives to aid in reducing these costly errors as a result of adverse events that were preventable (CPSI, 2003). High-fidelity patient simulation can provide promising patient safety solutions to assist in the teaching and learning environments within nursing educational programs. Faculty teaching and learning initiatives, utilizing the high-fidelity human patient computer-controlled simulation (HHPCS) as an adjunct technology in the Bodnar Simulation Suites of the new Robbins Health Learning Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, have included examining the capabilities to thwart the reality of making mistakes in patient safety, including medication administration errors, without compromising the safety, even potentially the lives, of real patients. Development of new patient safety modules utilizing the HHPCS provides further evidence of its importance as an adjunct technology within the context of nursing educational programs. This paper is presented to promote further discourse on the potential of highfidelity simulation technology as a vital tool in the future of nursing education. Designing and establishing effective educational and professional development programs in simulation are proposed to be integral to building a safer healthcare system. Further research is recommended to authenticate the role of high -fidelity human simulation technologies in the pursuit of better learning outcomes and inevitably improved patient safety outcomes.