To encourage the broad use of simulation-based medical education and establish partnerships to promote objective structured clinical examinations after clinical clerkship among medical teachers, we hosted the first team-based clinical skills competition event for medical students in Japan, named ‘Medical Students' Simlympic Games 2014'. Thirty-six (12 teams of three) open-recruited 5th or 6th grade medical students participated in this event. Student teams performed clinical tasks at 6 stations, which actively utilized the strengths of simulators or simulated patients. Contents, composition, difficulty level, and validity were tested by trainee doctors and examined by committee members in advance. In this report, we describe our concept, executive committee formation, a variety of arrangements, the outline on the day of the event, and the results of a questionnaire targeting participants. (126 words)

Abstract:

 This study examined the ability of medical students to self-assess basic clinical competence and learning strategies including simulation-based medical education for sixth-year medical students (n=903) at nine universities in Japan. About 40% of 27 procedures to achieve clinical skills in a model curriculum were taught using simulators with or without clinical training in hospitals. We noted that significant numbers of procedures were not practiced through any learning strategies. Higher self-assessment scores were observed among students in 4 schools who had more frequent learning opportunities through simulation-based education than among those with less frequent opportunities in 5 schools.

1) The central venous catheterization (CVC) training program for 2 trainees involves an instructor, a CVC insertion simulator (Kyoto Kagaku Co., Ltd), and a simulated patient.
2) The questionnaire filled out by trainees after the program showed favorable opinions, particularly the method of learning after the practice.
3) It is important that effective simulation programs for trainees are designed to develop practical procedures and professional attitudes as a physician using both a simulator and a simulated patient.

1) Osaka City University Medical School provides basic life support courses in the Skills Simulation Center. Most instructors are members of the Life Support Club, a medical students' extracurricular activity.2) We investigated the numbers and opinions of participants(December 2006 through July 2008). The numbers of trainee and instructors were 1071 and 1223, respectively. The student instructors considered their activities worthwhile.3) The trainees highly appreciated the student instructors and showed that the effectiveness of training was excellent. Our results show that basic life support courses taught by medical students are beneficial for both trainees and student instructors.

We have conducted a nationwide survey on faculty development for simulation-based medical education in Japan. The response rate was 90%. Forty-seven (68%) schools have implemented faculty development programs for simulation-based education. The most commonly implemented contents were standardized patient development, task trainer, high fidelity manikin operation, and student evaluation, which were related to objective structured clinical examination objective clinical skill assessment. Only 15 percent of medical schools implemented topics on reflective practice, and scientific writing. A constraint on faculty time was the most commonly perceived barrier to simulation use (mentioned by 62 schools; 90%).