Evaluating and Choosing Patient Simulators and Equipment

Abstract The process of evaluating, and ultimately purchasing, simulation equipment can be intimidating. It is hard not to be impressed with the quality of current devices and the incredible graphics of screen-based interactive programs that are currently available. With the announcement of your simulation center being approved or opening, you will be confronted by numerous vendors explaining why you cannot succeed without their company’s devices. They will show you all the bells and whistles of their devices. Or, you can go to simulation equipment fairs and not know quite where to start. The desire is to not miss out on a crucial capability; therefore in your anxious ignorance you want to stock your unit with “everything an educator could desire.” By building the world’s most expansive and expensive simulation center, why wouldn’t everyone want to come to the world’s best simulation center? We would suggest that the best way to ensure the effective and regular use of purchased equipment occurs when requests are brought forward from the actual educators who intend to use the equipment, not the owners or the managers of the simulation center, and not the vendors of simulation equipment.