Medical Educational Simulations: Exploring Reciprocity Between Learners’ Skills, Attitudes, and Career Intentions: A Case Study of Simulation Education Research

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to present a case study of experiential learning in healthcare simulation through express assessment focused on measuring learners’ experiences with educational medical simulations (MedSims) with regard to three dimensions: functional skills, attitudes toward usefulness of MedSims in professional education, and career intentions. A learning-on-demand event called “Doctor for a Day Simulation Program (DOC)” attracted 510 high school students of both genders with age ranging from 14 to 18 years who were enrolled in a summer school at the National Student Leadership Conference. Learners interacted with at least four out of five types of medical simulation platforms over the period of over 4 h at the MedStar Health-affiliated Simulation and Training Environment Laboratory (SiTEL) in the metropolitan area of Washington, District of Columbia, USA. The learning experience was measured via newly developed express method based on Learning Experiences with Technology Scale (LETS) along with three domains: level of functional skills as they relate to digital technology and video gaming, attitudes toward the use of MedSims in educational training, and intentions to pursue a healthcare career. The findings demonstrate that there are no linear relationships between the individual level of functional skills and attitudes toward MedSims and that the learners with the low level of functional skills expressed positive attitudes toward MedSims in the same way as students who play video games on a daily basis and therefore have high level of skills. At the same time, positive evaluation of learning experiences with educational medical simulations was associated with expressed intentions toward healthcare career as a relevant professional choice.