title: State of Simulation in Healthcare Education: An Initial Survey in Beijing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In 2013, medical error was the third leading cause of death in the United States.1In China, as in the case with the United States, training and assessment are developing as a strategy to reduce the occurrence of such errors. The objective of this study was to assess the current state of the use of simulation-based training in Beijing and to explore the barriers to further development.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study included hospitals in Beijing accredited by the Standardized Residency Training (SRT) program. The questionnaire was designed online and distributed to the SRT management departments by e-mail or instant message.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty hospitals were invited to participate in this survey, and 15 responses were completed and met the inclusion criteria. Task trainers (15/15), full-scale mannequins (14/15), standardized patients (12/15), and virtual reality workstations (11/15) were the most common types of simulation modalities available for use. Among the given specialties for SRT, the availability of simulation courses was 2/2 for pediatric internal medicine, 1/1 for pediatric surgery, 10/11 for surgery, 11/14 for internal medicine, 7/9 for anesthesiology, 6/8 for emergency medicine, and 3/9 for obstetrics/gynecology. Of the 13 institutions with available simulation curricula, 12/13 had simulation focused on proficiency-based skill training, 11/13 had medical knowledge learning, 10/13 had skill competency assessment. The main targeted trainees in these hospitals were residents (or postgraduate residents) and medical students (or interns). The top 2 barriers were the shortage of sustainable financial resources (12/15) and advocacy from their institutional authorities (7/15).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is evident that there is a need for more development of training facilities, and for training the "trainers" and administrators. Financial funding, curricular design, and research seem to be crucial for building a long-term, sustainable, effective program.
authors.affiliation: WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare (WISH), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Zichen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Urology Department, Wujieping Urology Center, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare (WISH), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Sweet
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003479:Curriculum; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008348:Manikins; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D016544:Patient Simulation; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: China; Curriculum; Education; Patient safety; Simulation training; Survey