An explorative study of experiences of healthcare providers posing as simulated care receivers in a ‘care-ethical’ lab

Abstract

In recent approaches to ethics, the personal involvement of health care providers and their empathy are perceived as important elements of an overall ethical ability. Experiential working methods are used in ethics education to foster, inter alia, empathy. In 2008, the care-ethics lab 'sTimul' was founded in Flanders, Belgium, to provide training that focuses on improving care providers' ethical abilities through experiential working simulations. The curriculum of sTimul focuses on empathy sessions, aimed at care providers' empathic skills. The present study provides better insight into how experiential learning specifically targets the empathic abilities of care providers. Providing contrasting experiences that affect the care providers' self-reflection seems a crucial element in this study. Further research is needed to provide more insight into how empathy leads to long-term changes in behaviour.

Simulation-Based Learning in Healthcare Ethics Education

“…The problems that occur during patient care by nurses (Vanlaere et al, 2010;Vanlaere et al, 2012), communication-based conflicts (Haddad, 2010;Torrance et al, 2012) and value conflicts (Smith et al, 2012) started to stand out gradually. In this scope, ethical perspective took its place in simulation-based education especially during the past 10 years.…”

“…In this scope, ethical perspective took its place in simulation-based education especially during the past 10 years. Although the studies carried out in this field are limited, usage of technological developments in ethical training is in search of solution about the ethical curriculum arrangement, consideration of humans as a whole with their values, how care that is given to vulnerable/fragile groups gains more importance, how the communication reacts in hard processes and how the scenarios specially fictionalized for this process are to be developed (Haddad, 2010;Vanlaere et al, 2010;Hallenbeck, 2012;Smith et al, 2012;Vanlaere et al, 2012;Smith et al, 2013). Health professional and educators focus on the insufficiencies in reporting of health practices, problems about communication process, lack of team work, and insufficiency of critical thinking skill (JCAHO, 2005).…”

“…Therefore, ethical matters have been structured as focused on patient care and safety process. In simulation-based ethical education, current matters such as empathy, fragile patient groups, informed consent, communication skills and giving bad news are included (see Figure 2) (Haddad, 2010;Vanlaere et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2012;Vanlaere et al, 2012;Torrance et al, 2012;Chen, 2011).…”

“…The ethical approach believes that variances in culture and society influence whether an act is moral (ANA, 2015a). Simulation training assists determine ethical problems that relate to principles of autonomy, beneficence, justice, informed consent, nonmaleficence, fairness, truthfulness, advocacy, and dedication (Haddad, 2010;Vanlaere et al, 2010;Hallenbeck, 2012;Smith et al, 2012;Vanlaere et al, 2012;Smith et al, 2013). Therefore, the ethics of simulation should be discussed within the context of the larger healthcare systems.…”

“…In this context, the Association of Simulation in Health (ASH) was founded in 2004 in the United States to improve patient safety by using simulation techniques (Galloway, 2009). Furthermore, ethical matters started to be considered in the ethical laboratories in Belgium in 2008 as integrated to the simulation training for the first time (Vanlaere et al, 2012).…”