Today, society makes high demands on the higher quality of medical services, and it is vital for every patient to be in the hands of a real professional. In teaching at medical universities, a variety of methods are used, including practice and simulation, which have both advantages and disadvantages.
It is believed that simulation hours are essential in the teaching of medical students. Jill (2016) claims that to enhance the student’s cognitive activity, it is crucial to use all possible simulation methods for practice, laboratory, and independent work. Indeed, simulations used in the medical field allow students to acquire many knacks before they meet with real patients. Students have the possibility to master basic professional skills without causing any damage to patients with standard practices used in the simulation.
However, it should be understood that simulation-based training is only an adjunct technique and cannot replace clinical practice in inpatient care. According to Roberts et al. (2019), the simulation hours can be used to complement the clinical ones. Still, it is necessary to determine the rules for the modeling method used and the number of simulation hours sufficient to maintain students’ professional skills.
Thus, the introduction of a simulation training system provides many benefits not only for students and teachers but also for patients, healthcare, and medical education. Simulators’ disadvantages are associated with the initial financial and time costs and training competent instructors as well as overcoming the skepticism of several students and teachers towards simulation training. Therefore, the clinical hours cannot be substituted with simulations.
