title: Designing and conducting low-cost in-situ clinical simulations: a methodological approach.
abstract: The need to develop more effective and usable systems in healthcare has led to increasing adoption of usability engineering methods. Primary among these methods has been usability testing, which involves observing representative users while they carry out representative tasks using health information systems. However, such testing may not capture the cognitive and social contexts of use of systems in real settings, necessitating the use of clinical simulations. Such simulations involve testing representative users carrying out representative tasks, systems in realistic and representative environments. In this paper we describe our work in both reducing the cost of simulation testing while at the same time increasing the fidelity of the simulations. We describe an approach which involves conducting simulations within real work environments and contexts as a way to achieve a high level of ecological validity. The stages involved in setting up such low-cost in-situ clinical simulations are detailed in this paper.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
authors.forename: Andre W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Kushniruk
authors.affiliation: School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Borycki
mesh_terms: D001955:British Columbia; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D063005:Health Information Systems / Q000145:classification* / Q000191:economics*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000191:economics*; D014584:User-Computer Interface