Simulation in education of health professions: a descriptive analysis through bibliometrics

Alves Lopes, António

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/44462

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Authors

Alves Lopes, António

Abstract(s)

Introduction and Objectives: Simulation-based training has been defined as the use of a person, device, or set of conditions to present and evaluate problems authentically that can be applied to many different disciplines and types of trainees. The usage of simulation, in Health professions practice and education, is still growing, with a possible impact also on research. However, the increase in the number of scientific publications makes it difficult to know the scientific structure and development of this field. Visualization techniques based on bibliometric data are useful for the understanding of scientific fields. Material and Methods: This is a bibliometric, descriptive, and retrospective study. The author identified publications from the Pubmed database from 2000 till 2022 related to the use of Simulation in Health Professions Education using this search string ("Teaching"[Mesh] OR "education" [Subheading] OR "Education"[Mesh]) AND ("Patient Simulation"[Mesh] OR "Computer Simulation"[Mesh] OR "Simulation Training"[Mesh] OR "High Fidelity Simulation Training"[Mesh]). From the titles and abstracts of these publications, was selected the main terms related to the field, extracted by VOSviewer software, to create a visualization of the most important trends referred to in the literature. Results: The author identify 2,212 eligible references (1,825 Clinical trials and Randomized Controlled Trials and 389 Meta-Analysis and Systematic Reviews). Upon analysing the co-occurrence of the Mesh terms associated with simulation and education, the most common one was the usage of this approach in different areas and education levels in the medical profession followed by nursing and allied health. It was noticeable also in the emergence after 2017 of the use of this strategy with nursing students. Conclusions: In overall, as shown by the published research, the interest in simulation has grown exponential, influencing all aspects related to the use of this approach in the education and training of Health Professions. As the global need for health care continues to grow, many challenges to clinical training remain unaddressed. Patient and context simulation has the potential to address these challenges using local and online available resources. Despite the growing evidence of simulation applied to the context of health professions education, integration of this approach into the academic curriculum is still slow because of various interrelated human, organizational and technical challenges.