The Ministry of Health establishes the first technical committee on simulation in the health sector
Simulation has officially entered the Italian Ministry of Health. For the first time, in fact, a “technical work group dedicated to the promotion of simulation in the health sector through training and research” has been created “with the aim of improving operational and technical activities, as well as the communication skills of health professionals”. This is established by the Decree of April 7 and signed by the Hon. Senator Prof. Pierpaolo Sileri, who has strongly pushed for the establishment of the committee.
Composed of doctors and nurses from various specialties, experts in training and simulation from the health sector, but also from other sectors, such as aeronautics, the table aims to analyze the current situation, identifying the best existing practices, to better understand the perspectives for the use of simulation in the health sector, combining training and research objectives, and promoting simulation as a tool for patient safety. At the same time, it will be the task of the technical board to define the objectives for the use of the fund for training in simulation, included for the first time in the 2022 budget law. It is the so-called “National Fund for training in simulation in the sector health” that aims to implement training with the use of simulation in hospital-university companies and scientific institutes, with an economic endowment of €500,000.00 for the current year [law n.234 of December 30 of 2021].
“The work group will allow us to define a concrete action plan for the use of the simulation fund, but” – reiterates the Hon. Prof Sileri – “it is only a first step: the goal is to consolidate and increase the allocation in the following years, and to make Italy a world excellence for simulation in the health sector”.
The coordinator of the committee will be prof. Pier Luigi Ingrassia, who underlines how “Simulation has now become an integral part of the health system” and adds: “the work group will follow a policy of collaboration with all active contacts in the national and local territory, as well as with scientific institutions and societies”. “I gladly agreed to contribute to the Technical Board set up by the Ministry of Health… I think it is extremely significant that resources have been allocated to what I consider the optimal and essential teaching method to develop the technical and aptitude skills of healthcare professionals” reiterated prof. Alessandro Barelli, one of the members of the committee.
The Ministry of Health has recognized several times the role of simulation in health training. The document “Patient safety and clinical risk management: manual for the training of health professionals” specifically includes among the educational interventions those carried out “also with demonstrations and simulations that make teaching more effective”. Or again in the document “training for clinical governance” simulation is mentioned among the methodologies to improve the quality of training. Now, however, it has been considered necessary to delve into the topic of simulation in the health sector with special reference to research and training aspects, through medical experts and representatives of health organizations involved in related activities at a national, local but also international level.
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