Human Patient Simulation: A Preliminary Report of an Innovative Training Tool for Physician Assistant Education

Abstract

Purpose: The human patient simulator exhibits many clinical signs, including heart sounds, breath sounds, palpable pulses, chest excursion, and airway patency. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of simulation technology for training physician assistant (PA) students. Method: An intervention trial was designed to compare the human patient simulator to material presented in lecture format for training PA students. Results: Students who participated in human patient simulator training tended to score higher on written tests than students in the control group, who received information in the traditional lecture format. Conclusion: Test results suggest a higher level of cognition of material presented to the participants of the human patient simulator group compared to the control group. A high level of student satisfaction was also noted. Integration of additional human patient simulator training to the program is under way.