[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                COMMEMORATING HEALTHCARE SIMULATION WEEK

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                            HON. ANDY HARRIS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 13, 2017

  Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, to commemorate Healthcare Simulation Week, 
which makes its debut September 11-15, 2017, I would like to share with 
you my views as a physician on the importance of simulation in 
healthcare.
  Simulation is a technique creating a situation or environment that 
allows people to experience a representation of a real event to 
practice, learn, be tested or to understand systems and human actions.
  Using simulation, similar to that for pilots and flight crews in 
aviation, learners address hands-on and thinking skills, including 
procedures, real-time decision-making and communication. Critical 
teamwork actions such as managing a high workload, adapting to 
unexpected changes, and coordinating under stress are practiced. 
Simulation-based training encompasses a broad range of experiences, 
including the use of task trainers, live actors, mannequins, 3D and 
computer modeling, and even virtual reality.
  Healthcare Simulation Week, sponsored by the Society for Simulation 
in Healthcare, celebrates professionals who use simulation to impact 
the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of healthcare delivery.
  As a physician and Navy man, I am well aware of the benefits that 
simulation brings to patient safety and to the financial interests of 
healthcare institutions. According to a study cited in Modern 
Healthcare magazine, anesthesiologists who took part in simulation-
based training on how to properly wean patients from cardiopulmonary 
bypass performed better in real-life procedures than those who received 
traditional interactive seminars. And, Dr. Christine Park, President of 
the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, says that numerous studies 
demonstrate that simulation more effectively prepares all types of 
providers, including physicians, nurses, first responders and others 
across the full spectrum of experience. Simulation provides the 
opportunity to learn, analyze error, and maintain life-saving skills 
before working on actual patients.
  In a Gallup poll on the subject, 92 percent of the American public 
believed that simulation-based education for board-certified physicians 
was important.
  Healthcare Simulation Week is an excellent opportunity for my 
physician and nursing colleagues and every member of Congress to 
recognize that the quality of health care for all patients, including 
ourselves, can be greatly improved through new advances in simulation, 
and that simulation should be included in all aspects of healthcare 
education. We believe that a system-wide embedding of simulation in 
hospitals and systems should be the norm and should appear in an 
assessment of hospital rankings.

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