Low Fidelity and High Fidelity Simulations

Low fidelity stimulation is used to teach students basic skills like IV insertion, IM injections, etc. High fidelity is used to teach students critical thinking with different scenarios that may happen to a patient. Most nursing or medical students use stimulation mannequins to learn and practice the skills that they have been taught and perfect their techniques. This practice helps them when it comes them encountering real life situations. With the use of either low or high-fidelity mannequins, they feel more prepared in providing care for real patients. These high and low fidelity mannequins have a high cost which are purchased mostly by nursing programs to improve their learning outcomes. Many of these mannequins have special computerized features that will enhance students learning. These features help most students gain more confidence to when it comes them being hands on in their clinicals.

Low-fidelity and high-fidelity stimulation are mannequins with key features used for medical and nursing students to practice real life scenarios and prepare them before going on into their clinicals or graduating with their degree. They also help them practice their skills until they master them and what to do when a task is assigned.

High fidelity in a mannequin is when someone, such as an instructor, is able to modify the mannequin to have abnormal breathing, heartbeat, etc. Low fidelity helps students practice but don’t get the full practice one needs like high fidelity. High fidelity stimulation is fundamental method in learning to all nursing students. It helps students practice with real life scenarios, so when it comes to an actual real-life situation they are ready and know what to do without being scared. High fidelity stimulation allows students to make mistakes in a safe area without harming any patients. High fidelity stimulation helps with the improvement of medical and technical skills, and be more confident, when taking performing them with real patients. Practicing with high fidelity stimulation helps get real time feedback with vital signs, such as a tachy-cardiac or bradycardic patient, or hypertensive and hypotensive patient.

A Low fidelity in a mannequin is when you are limited to only being able to move the mannequin’s body part, but doesn’t have any special features. Low fidelity stimulation is required to be used in certain stages of learning. It may not imitate the realism of women in labor, or abnormal heartbeats but it provides students the opportunity to learn the appropriate ways of treating a patient. It helps students feel more confident when it comes to treating real patients. They have learned all these skills when treating different parts of the body because of the low fidelity mannequin. Low fidelity mannequins are used to practice IV administration, urinary catheter, NG administration and G tube feeding, cleaning of the central venous catheter. Many of these low fidelity mannequins are used by nursing students to practice their IM or IV insertion, and also know all their anatomical areas. Using low- fidelity stimulation reduces medical and nursing student’s anxiety prior to undertaking their clinical placement.

Many of these high technology mannequins such as the Sim Man costs approximately around $27,000, but there are more that cost up to $60,000 with additional accessories and programs that are needed to download onto the mannequin. Most of these mannequins’ costs increase depending on the key features that have be downloaded. The Sim Man 3G cost is around $31,200 with a 3-year program and its features. Just the Sim Baby alone with without training is approximately around $27,715 but with the contract price it comes out around $25,774.95 including the 7% discount. The Sim Mom alone with a 5-year costs approximately around $18,375 but comes out to around $18,191.25 with the 7% discount. They have to make a contract in order to get a little discount for every item purchased. Most of these mannequins are purchased to help students learn and practice for their clinical with the special features. This is the primary reason of why their cost is highly expensive.

According to our lab coordinator Mr. Hill, the high-fidelity mannequins available at Laredo College are priced at $ 80,000 for each of the 4-sim man 3g(s) only, the laptop to help modify its features is and additional $3,000, and the tablet $8,000 in totaling up to $360,000 dollars. The old nursing Anne simulators were $9,000 dollars each which were 7 bought and in total were $63,000 dollars. The new nursing Anne sim and sim pad were $13,000 dollars each. The sim newbie 01 mannequin was $10,000 dollars and with the laptop was $15,000 dollars in total. The sim new newbie 02 was $18,165, the pc instructor monitor is $4,000, and the sim pad man was $2,000 so in total with everything it was $22,165 dollars. In two birthing mom (annes) was $100,000, the sim pad monitor and pc monitor $10,000 dollars each so for everything in total it was $120,000 dollars.

Low and high-fidelity simulation has become a key to the training of both undergraduates medical students and medical professionals. All these mannequins have key features that will help students get a better understating to a scenario they had just been taught. Some of these features are modifying a patient’s abnormal heart rate, high or low blood pressure, abnormal pulse, breath sounds, seizures, palpable pulses, and many more. The increase of realism leads to general improvement in trainees’ outcomes. For example, nursing students tend to learn more with high fidelity simulation. They get to experience real life scenarios and situations that can occur. As a result, they will be more prepared to and have experience in any situation they might encounter in clinicals.

Many might say that high fidelity stimulation doesn’t help and just make students over confident when they go out to the field, but the use of high-fidelity simulation leads to an equal or even performance and growth in knowledge as compared to low-fidelity. They would say that many students get too much practice that they end up perfecting it. This might happen because they know what they are doing and know what to do. Most students know and study everything they are taught so they are sure that they won’t miss anything, but every student should know that they should double check and verify that they didn’t forget anything. They always have to verify that they did everything correctly and did not do any mistakes that may affect the patient. Every nursing student practices many times to get everything right and know what they are doing when accessing a patient. Nursing and medical students always have to make sure that they are doing everything correctly while they are doing a skill. They have to be checking themselves while they perform any skill to make sure they do not do any mistakes that may harm the patient.

Using both low and high fidelity help students achieve a greater level of confidence will benefit them in their future educative role as a healthcare. It offers ideal opportunities for improved interaction and provides a safe non-threating learning environment for all students. Both low and high fidelity are often used by instructors to teach all their students the best and most helpful way. Standard lecture and then high-fidelity stimulation after help students engage more and improve retain all the information they have learned. High fidelity simulation uses advanced technology that provides rapid response to teach students how to interact with patients. It helps teach nursing students how to respond to any kind of scenario or situation they might encounter during clinicals or their career. Teaching students with low and high-fidelity simulation helps them comprehend what the professor is talking about during lecture. It helps students understand more what they are being taught. It helps them actually seeing how to do it instead of just listening to how to do it.

Some discoveries that I made as a whole, would be that low and high-fidelity simulation both help equally nursing and medical students learn all the techniques that they need it. Low and high fidelity have different necessary equipment as well as costs, but they both have positive impacts on the students learning outcomes and their confidence levels. Some difference between the articles are that some show the statistics of how much it low and high fidelity actually helps students with their confidence gaining. While others show how low fidelity and high fidelity actually work. Some similarities among the articles were how they showed what low and high fidelity was and the features each of all the mannequins had. Also, what they are being used for. Mostly nursing students and medical students are the ones that use these mannequins. To learn the skills that they need to help and give the best possible care to patients. This tells me that low and high fidelity have many features that are used to train and teach nursing and medical students all they need to know. In most articles it showed what low fidelity mannequins would do and what high fidelity mannequins would do. It also showed how we have a lot of mannequins to help teach different things depending the lesson the professor is teaching.

In conclusion, all the research I have made answered the question I had about low and high fidelity. It answers me what is the difference between low and high-fidelity simulation. It also answered how using low and high fidelity helped nursing and medical students learn the skills they need to. The answered I received what not what I expected I didn’t think I would find many information about low and high fidelity. About how much low and high-fidelity simulation does help students understand better lecture and helps them prepare for their clinicals.