March 8, 2023By Lance Baily

Laerdal Highlights Healthcare Simulation Diversity eBook

simulation diversity ebook

Healthcare simulation diversity and equity are two incredibly important focal points across the medical simulation industry. Their practice helps clinical simulation centers and programs overcome barriers to education and training while promoting inclusion. To expand upon these topics, Laerdal Medical, one of the world’s premiere vendors of medical simulation and clinical education equipment, has released an e-Book titled, “How to Use Simulation-based Training to Reduce Implicit Bias and Promote Equitable Care.” This HealthySimulation.com article shares insights from the eBook and explains why simulationists must work to integrate diversity and inclusion into their clinical training.

According to Laerdal, Covid-19 disproportionately affected communities of color and exacerbated long-term health disparities in the U.S. The company explains that, though hospitals have spent the past two decades working to improve health outcomes for underserved patient populations, research has shown there to be little to no improvement.

Laerdal believes that to reduce implicit bias and develop more culturally-competent healthcare providers, training must move beyond policy changes, new compliance guidelines, and base-level diversity training. Ultimately, healthcare simulation-based team training has proven the ability to “change the behavior of providers faster and more effectively than other learning methods.” For this reason, the company established this latest e-Book, which provides instruction on how diversity and inclusion can be integrated into clinical training to promote equitable care practices.

Sponsored Content:

In the e-Book’s introduction, Laerdal explains that disparities exist across dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, age, education level, disability status, socioeconomic status, and geographic location. While this is clear, the solution, or solutions, are more ambiguous. Yet, one solution remains that training healthcare professionals on stronger training methods can develop more culturally-competent and cognizant providers.

“There are many benefits of using simulation to train healthcare providers and providers in training, including making knowledge come alive, increasing clinical understanding, boosting confidence to treat acute cases, and many more. In this eBook, we will discuss how simulation can specifically help to reduce implicit bias and mitigate risk to patients of diverse backgrounds,” the book states.

The company then shares health statistics, example scenario cases, and helpful tools to make or propose an educational shift in each organization. The goal of sharing these statistics is that simulation will take away thoughtful insights to guide more culturally-diverse learning experiences and influence safer, more equitable healthcare. Statistics include that:

  • The U.S. spends more on healthcare as a share of the economy yet has the lowest life expectancy and highest suicide rate.
  • The U.S. has the highest chronic disease burden and 2x the obesity rate average of other developed countries.
  • The U.S. has among the highest number of hospitalizations from preventable causes and the highest rate of avoidable deaths.

“By focusing on patient-centered care for the most at-risk populations, the nation’s care can be improved overall. This is especially important as we look at underserved Populations,” explained Laerdal.

Sponsored Content:

Additional Diversity eBook Takeaways

The company notes that, compared with didactic teaching methods (such as lectures, discrimination training, and policy updates), healthcare simulation is “best known as the method that makes learning ‘stick.’” For this reason, hospitals and nursing schools that have adopted simulation training have seen improvements including higher engagement, improved clinical retention, teamwork and communications, positive patient outcomes, reduced turnover, increased provider confidence, coordinated responses to low-frequency, high-acuity cases, and better compliance.

“It is important to note that diversity training through simulation requires far more than a simulator or manikin with a different skin tone or gender. In order to achieve learning outcomes directly related to diversity, you will need to modify steps in your planning, facilitating, and debriefing,” the company states.

Throughout the remainder of this diversity eBook, Laerdal explains the types of simulation and reviews each modality. The company also shares how each simulationist can work to create an authentic and diverse simulation experience. Importantly, Laerdal stresses that the goal of simulating diverse patient populations is to distinguish one individual from the next. “These differences are the key to providing safe and equitable care.”

Laerdal’s advice is thus that each simulationist should focus on priority populations for public health in their area. By orienting a clinical simulation scenario around a patient group that is faced with negative health outcomes, they will be able to more intently focus on areas where there is room for improvement.

Overall, this diversity eBook provides numerous solutions to train diverse patients. Laerdal understands that implicit bias, which can stand in the way of safe patient care, cannot be eliminated overnight – nor can it be reduced by one singular training session. However, by learning and understanding the importance of diversity and the ways it can be trained, providers can work to reduce bias and provide equitable care. Laerdal is committed to providing customers with the necessary diversity solutions in support of helping to save more lives across the entire spectrum of patients.

More About Laerdal Medical

Laerdal Medical began its mission to “Help Save Lives” in 1960 with the invention of the CPR training manikin called Resusci Anne. For over sixty years, Laerdal has provided the global healthcare simulation community with clinical task training and high-fidelity manikin products ranging from the Laerdal pocket mask to the Laerdal SimMan 3G. The company boasts more than 1400 employees in over 20 countries with as many as 50 international distributors. The Latest Laerdal-related articles from HealthySimulation.com are listed below. Other major patient simulator manufacturers include CAE Healthcare and Gaumard. Laerdal Medical acquired B-Line Medical in 2019.

Laerdal has partnered with key medical and public healthcare societies, such as the American Heart Association and the National League for Nursing, to provide educational curricula for healthcare students and professionals. Laerdal Medical supports healthcare education training in a range of fields including EMS, military, hospital, nursing, and voluntary organizations just to name a few.

Laerdal Global Health is their not-for-profit arm dedicated to helping save the lives of mothers and newborns. Since 2010, Laerdal Global Health has worked in close collaboration with partners to develop high-impact, low-cost solutions aimed at helping save lives. These solutions, implemented by Laerdal partners throughout the world, ensure that health workers are better trained, equipped, and supported to provide quality care and save mothers and babies at birth.

Additionally, through the Laerdal Foundation, the company has supported the research of best practices and practical implementations in acute medicine. To date, the foundation has supported almost 2,000 international research projects with more than 40 million dollars in supported funding. Healthcare Simulation conferences such as IMSH, SimGHOSTS, SESAM, INACSL, NLN, Simulation Australasia, ASPiH, and more are great places to see Laerdal Medical products in person.

Learn More About Laerdal’s Diversity eBook

Sponsored Content:

Posted In
Education, Facilitators, Faculty / Supervisors, Featured, Learners
Tags
clinical simulation, DEI, DEI eBook, DEI simulation, diverse patients, diversity, equity, featured, healthcare simulation, inclusion, laerdal, laerdal medical, medical simulation, patient safety, simualtion vendor, simulation eBook, simulation education, simulation vendors, simulationist, simulationists
clinical simulation, DEI, DEI eBook, DEI simulation, diverse patients, diversity, equity, featured, healthcare simulation, inclusion, laerdal, laerdal medical, medical simulation, patient safety, simualtion vendor, simulation eBook, simulation education, simulation vendors, simulationist, simulationists