Realism in Clinical Simulation, Art and Science

Abstract

Medical Education has proven to be a useful pedagogic tool for students and healthcare personnel around the World. The simulation education paradigm is based on substituting the patient for a mannequin, part of a mannequin, or an actor. When we talk about fidelity in simulation, we refer to the similarity that simulation has compared to reality. More similarity equals higher fidelity. When we talk about realism we refer to the similarity perceived by the participant compared to their clinical experience. In the World, there are other disciplines that have dedicated time and effort exploring realism, some of them are arts like Literature, Theater, and Movies. There are others like Illusionism and the Video Game Industry. The objective of this paper is to make a review of the different ways in which these disciplines have to approach to realism, and then try to extrapolate concepts learned from them to healthcare simulation.