Simulation Based Clinical Education (Online Learning) PgCert

So,  my  name  is  Muz. I'm  a  doctor  by  background, and  I  work  in  Edinburgh, and  I'm  currently  doing  a  fellowship in  simulation  where  I teach  undergraduate  medical  students  at the  medical  school  about  clinical  skills, acute  care,  and  resuscitation. And  I'm  currently  doing  the  PG  cert in  simulation  based  education. 

I  think  the  course  has  been  fantastic. It's  really  aligned  with the  work  I  do  in  day  to  day  practise. It's  taught  me  a  lot  about simulation  design  and using  simulation  for  assessment, and  also  a  little  bit  about current  issues  in  simulation. It's  been  great  because  I've been  able  to  work  at  my  own  pace. 

The  staff  have  been  incredibly  supportive, and  the  materials  are really  relevant  to  my  day  to  day  practise. I  think  anyone  with  a  interest  in simulation  would  find  the  course  really fascinating  and  interesting  to  do. I  think  it's  a  real  opportunity  to work  with  fellow  interested  colleagues around  the  globe  and  hear  about different  perspectives  about  how simulation  can  be  done differently  in  different  settings. 

I  think  it's  especially  great  for  people who  are  working  full  time because  the  course  is  online. And  it  means  that  there's  a  lot of  flexibility  in  being able  to  engage  in  the  tutorials, but  also  catch  up  the material  at  your  own  pace. And  overall,  I  think it's  really  relevant  to  what  I  do. And  if  you  intend  to use  simulation  in  your  day  to  day practise  or  it's  something  that  you  think  is an  interesting  learning tool  for  your  teaching, then  it's  definitely  worthwhile  pursuing. 

I  think  the  assessments  were  interesting, but  really  fun  to  do,  actually. I'm  very  used  to  exams where  you  sit  in  a  room  and  you're answering either  multiple  choice  questions  or, you  know,  short  based  answer  questions. But  the  style  of assessments  in  this  course  were  a  little  bit more  engaging  in  that you  had  to  think critically  about  your  writing, which  is  a  skill  that  I've not  really  had  a  chance  to  develop  before, but  it  was  done  so  in  a  supported  setting. 

The  assessments  weren't particularly  long  or  taxing. I  think  they  were  just  enough  to  be  able to  really  get  deeper  into a  topic  that  was  of  interest  to  you without  going  down  too  much  of  a  rabbit  hole. And  I  think  the  time  allocated  for the  assessments  was  appropriate  as  well. 

What  was  particularly  great  was  we  had a  formative  assessment  that was  lined  up  to  the  summative, and  it  meant  that  you  could  get some  feedback  halfway  through  a  module  to be  able  to  find out  whether  or  not  you  were  going  down the  right  lines  and  adapt  it for  the  summative  assessment. 

I  think  the  workload  was  paced  well, so  we  had  a  suggested  reading  list that  we  could  approach  in  our  own  time. Having  weekly  tutorials  meant that  I  was  slightly, you  know,  accountable  to  ensure  that  I wasn't  falling  too  far  back  behind. But  the  lecturers  were  clear  from the  beginning  that  they  were  aware  we were  generally  working  full  time, and  so  sometimes  it's  not  possible  to  do all  the  reading  before  a  session, but  it  doesn't  mean  that  you can't  attend  the  session  and, you  know,  do  and  be  introduced  to  the  topic, and  so  then  catch  up  on  your  own  time. 

In  terms  of  balancing  the  full  time  job, there  are  times  where it's  a  little  bit  more  difficult, particularly  in  the  run  up  to  Christmas, but  there  were  times where  actually,  you  know, I  had  found  time  in  my  day to  just  do  a  bit  of  reading  during  lunchtime or  in  the  evenings  when things  were  a  little  bit  quieter. So  it  did  take  a  bit  of getting  used  to  at  the  beginning, but  actually,  overall,  I found  the  workload  completely  manageable. 

I  think  it  being  online  means  that people  have  flexibility  to join  from  wherever  they  are. So  there  were  times  where  I  was  able to  join  whilst  at  work, if  I  was  staying  late  one  evening. I  was  able  to  join  from home  a  lot  of  the  time. I  think  it  means  that people  are  able  to  access the  recordings  later  on if  they're  not  able  to  attend  the  session. But  it  being  in a  scheduled  evening  during  the  week, it  meant  that  I  could  plan  my  week  around  it. And  the  tutorials  were fairly  short  conversations, so  usually  around  about  1  hour,  give  or  take. And  I  think  that  was  the right  balance  between,  again, engaging  just  enough  into  a  topic  to  give  you a  broad  overview  and  an  opportunity to  answer  questions  without, again,  going  too  deep  and  getting  confused about  whatever  the  topic  matter  was. 

But  I  do  appreciate that  some  people  do  prefer in  person  tutorials. I  think  for  me, I  didn't  have  a  particular  preference, but  it  meant  that  I  could  be a  little  bit  more  flexible. I  think  it  didn't  take away  from  understanding  how the  practical  elements  could  be  used in  practise  because  it  being online  also  meant  that  you could  join  with  lots of  people  from  around  the  world. It  wasn't  limited  to  just  people in  the  local  vicinity. And  so  you  were  able  to  hear  lots  of different  perspectives  and anecdotes  and  experiences. So  I  wouldn't  say  that  for  me, it  being  online  was  a  limitation  to  that. 

However,  I  think  it  helps if  you  are  using  simulation  in your  day  job  because  you  can  put those  principles  into  practise and  actually  see  how  things  work. And  then  the  next  week,  you  can,  you  know, attend  a  session  and  say, well,  we  spoke  about  this  last  week. I  tried  it  out.  It  worked. It  didn't  work,  and  actually  hear  about what  others'  thoughts  and perspectives  were  on  it.

It's  been  great  doing  the  programme while  working  in  a  medical  education  role. I  guess  what  I  found  most useful  from  the  programme  is  getting  some of  the  theory  and  ideas  to  backup  what  I'm doing  in  my  day  to  day  teaching  practise, maybe  to  challenge  some  of  those  things and  think  about  new  ways  of  doing  things, and  also  to  kind  of share  ideas  with  people  from across  the  UK  and  beyond working  in  different  simulation  roles. 

Actually  worked  really  well  for me  doing  the  programme  while  I  was  in a  kind  of  substantive  medical  education  post because  a  lot  of the  assignments  within  the  programme, I  was  able  to  use  kind  of  pieces  of work  that  I  needed  to  do  in  my  role, so  developing  an  ultrasound  training  session, for  example,  in  the  principles of  learning  and  teaching  module. So  I  think  it  was  really  good to  do  the  course  at a  time  when  I  was  doing  quite  a  lot  of simulation  in  my  day  to  day  work  anyway. But  I  guess  that  doesn't  mean  that  you have  to  be  doing  that  to  join  the  course. And  I've  been  lucky  to  be  in  a  post when  I'm  basic  doing  simulation 80%  the  time  this  year.

I'm  going  back  into  a clinical  role  from  August. I've  kind  of  developed an  enthusiasm  for  simulation and  a  bit  of  kind  of  experience and  knowledge  to  go with  that  from  the  programme. So  I'm  hoping  that's  something  I  can  carry on  throughout  my  kind of  medical  career  really. And  I  guess  I've  enjoyed so  probably  two  things. I  think  although  there's quite  sort  of  structured  teaching to  the  course, I  found  some  of  the  discussions, the  week  leaving  discussions  where  we've  been able  to  go  and  explore things  in  a  bit  more  detail. Talking  about  our  own  experiences has  been  really  helpful. 

And  also  the  assignments, although  they're  kind  of  quite meaty  pieces  of  work  to  do, actually  was  a  chance  to  kind  of explore  topics  that  of interest  in  a  bit  more  detail. So  I  chose  in  the  final  module  to  explore  how and  when  to  end  the  simulation  and  was able  to  kind  of  take  a  bit of  a  deep  dive  into  that. Which  is  something that's  not  really  discussed anywhere  else  and  come  up  with  my  own  view. It  was  quite  a  good  excuse to  take  that  deep  dive.