Cutting Edge Models for Healthcare Professions Education and Clinical Research

Extract

Among the significant benefits of editing the Clinical Laboratory Science supplemental education issue is the opportunity to reflect on education practices evolving in direct response to the changing goals, values, and practices emerging in our healthcare delivery system. The articles in the 2012 Education Supplement are well-developed examples of innovative applications of simulations resulting in educational outcomes enhancement and resources reduction that address changing practices in healthcare delivery. As you digest the practice descriptions, methods, and applications presented hereafter, consider the implications of these educational practices through the lens of major healthcare delivery change drivers like computerization and informatics. Also, consider implications for the laboratory medicine manufacturing and larger healthcare professions education sectors.

To help focus your analysis, look back to the 2011 Education Supplement in which two questions were posed in the introductory comments: “(1) Can we as medical laboratory professionals, demonstrate the value of our services and information unequivocally, in data-driven terms, in language understood by the emerging value-based healthcare system providers and consumers? (2) What is laboratory medicine clinical research and what needs to be investigated?”¹The answers to these questions will determine the value of our services, specifically, “how well they support positive medical outcomes and the extent to which they favorably influence medical decision-making.”¹ To address the first question, consider the evidence for value of the practices described in the following articles all of which relate to aspects of simulation utility in the heuristics of technical instruction. Some address student instruction while others address clinical…