Prehospital and hospital-based health care providers' experience with a human patient simulator.

OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the level of acceptance of a human patient simulator as a training tool among a diverse group of health care providers. Secondary objectives were to elucidate its most useful aspects for training and find ways to improve upon the simulation experience.
METHODS: A satisfaction survey was conducted regarding the use of a human patient simulator from July 1999 to February 2000. The survey consisted of five questions with a five-point Likert scale (5 being the most favorable score) and three questions that asked for qualitative written feedback on the simulator experience. The survey was handed to 78 consecutive participants immediately after their experiences and collected immediately after it was filled out to ensure a 100% response rate to the overall survey. Qualitative responses were placed into categories by theme, and a sum was calculated for each category.
RESULTS: There was a high level of acceptance for simulation training among this diverse group, with Likert scores for the first two questions regarding general satisfaction of 4.74 +/- 0.126 (n = 77) and 4.77 +/- 0.126 (n = 78). Regarding the usefulness of each specific area of simulator training, the scores were 4.53 +/- 0.153 (n = 78) for patient assessment, 4.55 +/- 0.182 (n = 47) for treatment options, and 4.70 +/- 0.125 (n = 63) for response to treatment. There were 49 positive comments and nine negative comments. Realism (n = 26) and the ability to see response to treatment (n = 12) were the two most common positive comments. Negative comments focused on logistics of the simulator lab (n = 4) rather than the simulator itself.
CONCLUSIONS: In this sample, prehospital and hospital-based health professionals were accepting of human patient simulation as a new teaching tool with multiple useful applications.