Simulation-Based Education in Trauma Management: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Trauma injuries are an important healthcare problem and one of the main leading causes of death worldwide. The purpose of this review was to analyze current practices in teaching trauma management using simulations, with the aim of summarizing them, identifying gaps and providing a critical overview on what has already been achieved. A search on the Web of Science website for simulation-based trauma training articles published from 2010 onwards was performed, obtaining 1617 publications. These publications were screened to 35 articles, which were deeply analyzed, gathering the following information: the authors, the publication type, the year of the publication, the total number of citations, the population of the training, the simulation method used, the skills trained, the evaluation type used for the simulation method presented in the paper, if skills improved after the training and the context in which the simulation took place. Of the 35 articles included in this review, only a few of them had students as the target audience. The more used simulation method was a high-fidelity mannequin, in which the participants trained in more technical than non-technical skills. Almost none of the studies introduced an automated evaluation process and most of the evaluation methods consisted of checklists or questionnaires. Finally, trauma training focused more on treating trauma patients in a hospital environment than in a pre-hospital one. Overall, improvements in the evaluation method, as well as in the development of trauma training on undergraduate education, are important areas for further development.

The Need for Trauma Management Training and Evaluation on a Prehospital Setting

“…Moreover, according to Jouda and Finn [ 10 ], the best simulation method and procedure to teach trauma management to medical students has not yet been established. This is a field that needs further development [ 55 , 56 ]. Additionally, prehospital settings should be further trained as doctors should be able to attend to a trauma patient as soon as possible, with the knowledge of the available resources depending on the environment in which they need to support the patient.…”

“…Additionally, prehospital settings should be further trained as doctors should be able to attend to a trauma patient as soon as possible, with the knowledge of the available resources depending on the environment in which they need to support the patient. Even though there has been an increase in the number of prehospital trauma management training, this needs to be further improved [ 56 , 57 ].…”

Virtual reality simulation to enhance advanced trauma life support trainings – a randomized controlled trial

“…Furthermore, the ATLS trauma principles encompass many practical skills, that are best studied in a practical setting. Simulation-based training is a valuable modality to complement real-world clinical experiences because it enables control over the sequence of tasks offered to learners, provides opportunities to offer support and guidance to learners, prevents unsafe and dangerous situations, and creates tasks that rarely occur in the real world [ 3 ]. However, traditionally simulation-based trainings are highly resource-intensive, incurring personal costs, requiring specialized equipment, and necessitating specific locations.…”

“…Moreover, adapting these trainings to accommodate an increasing number of students proves challenging. Current trauma education curricula often provide limited scenario practice opportunities, and there is a scarcity on training opportunities for undergraduates [ 3 ].…”

Biosignals Monitoring of First Responders for Cognitive Load Estimation in Real-Time Operation

“…During the last decade, new solutions have been emerging to provide FRs with technological tools and to improve their activities in emergency situations. Some of them focus on replicating activities in simulators or emulators, with the aim of training real activities with computer-based programs [28,29] or virtual reality [30]. Regardless of the technology, as aforementioned, working memory is limited in both capacity and duration when dealing with novel information; but these limitations effectively disappear when working memory deals with information transferred from long-term memory.…”