Advances in Health Sciences Education

, Volume 17, Issue 2, pp 279–288 | Cite as

Why simulation-based team training has not been used effectively and what can be done about it

Reflections
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Abstract

Advanced medical education simulators are broadly used today to train both technical/procedural and team-based skills. While there is convincing evidence of the benefits of training technical skills, this is not the case for team-based skills. Research on medical expertise could drive the creation of a new regime of simulation-based team training. The new regime includes first the understanding of complex systems such as the hospital and the operating room; then the performance of work-place assessment; thirdly, the deliberate training of weaknesses and team performance skills; and lastly the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of team competence. A new regime of deliberate training proposed by the author, which would need to be evaluated and validated, could elucidate the underlying mechanisms of team competence while providing evidence of the effect of simulation-based team training.

Keywords

Deliberate practice Medical simulation Medical expertise Team training Teamwork Human factors 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Brian Hodges for his critical review of the manuscript and Carolina Wannheden for proofreading the manuscript.

Competing interests

None declared.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Karolinska Institutet, Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and EthicsMedical Management CentreStockholmSweden
  2. 2.Karolinska University Hospital, Clinical Skills and Simulation CenterStockholmSweden

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