Use of simulation in teaching and learning in health sciences: a systematic review.

The use of simulation as an educational tool is becoming increasingly prevalent in health care practice. Institutions have adopted simulations to help educate their students and health care professionals; however, intervention effectiveness evaluation continues to be an area requiring research. With use of this technology, it has become necessary to evaluate this method of educating health care professionals. As simulation use has increased, so has the literature related to evaluation of the innovative teaching method. A systematic review of the literature examined the effectiveness of simulation as a teaching tool. The aim was to evaluate current literature on the use of clinical simulation in health care education. The findings identify themes in the evaluation literature, highlight gaps in the literature as it pertains to evaluating the effectiveness of using simulations as a teaching tool, and support the need for further research into the evaluation of simulation as a teaching tool. Copyright 2010, SLACK Incorporated.