[Simulation, a strategy for improving clinical education]

Advances in medical and nursing education has led to the transformation of traditional teaching methods to advanced teaching methods for clinical care in a secure environment. Simulation is a unique modality for experiential learning and evaluation. Limited facilities or short-stay patients impact learning in the field of medicine and paramedical sciences. Thus, few learning opportunities are present in the areas of patient care for students. Preparation of a simulated environment helps with the improvement of education, in a controlled environment and prevents of medical errors and any harm to the patient. The aim of this article was to review teaching of simulation in clinical education. Electronic databases and publishers such as proQuest and Elsevier from 2000 to 2011were reviewed. All articles on simulation were collected and related studies to clinical education according to inclusion criteria were picked up. Six qualitative studies, 11 quantitative studies and 4 studies with mixed qualitative - quantitative methods were selected for analysis. Although simulating has different levels, but evidence suggests that in comparison to traditional training and lecture-based methods, it has more efficiency and effectiveness. Simulation is an important tool in clinical education with positive effects for faculty, students and patients. In the past decade, simulation has been a key strategy for the development of clinical skills in students. Policymakers, professors and founders focus on the need to develop clinical skills before entrance to the bedside in order to improve patient safety

Proposing appropriate national standards for nursing and midwifery education derived from international standards: a case study, master of science in nursing and midwifery

Applying foreign standards for accreditation of Master of Science in nursing and midwifery in Iran seems anomalous. Taking advantage of these foreign standards as well as the views of experts in nursing and midwifery, the researcher in this study tried to develop the accreditation standards according to educational circumstances in Iran. This study was performed in the years of 2005-2006 during multiple stages. In the first stage, international standards were gathered through the internet, and in the second stage, using these standards and the views of expert faculty members, proper standards for the context of Iran were set. During the third stage, Delphi technique was employed for taking votes. Whereas 50 persons having the criteria for entering the study were selected through purposeful sampling method and their viewpoints toward appropriateness of suggested standards for the educational circumstances of the country was obtained using the questionnaire designed in the second stage. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. After applying experts' views about applicability of these standards to circumstances in the country, 28 standards and 224 indices for nursing and midwifery education were proposed as final standards. Most standards had almost 90% desirability. Issues such as presenting evidences indicating the ability of speaking in English or qualification for education in Master of Science courses had less desirability. It seems that the main cause of their undesir'ability is the educational status in Iran