Medical education
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This discussion paper argues for a creative synthesis between simulation and clinical practice, where an iterative process of continual interaction ensures that skills are learned and reinforced within the context of everyday professional life. ⋯ Simulation offers a safe environment within which learners can repeatedly practise a range of clinical skills without endangering patients. Comprehensive simulated environments allow a move away from isolated tasks to more complex clinical situations, recreating many of the challenges of real life. Such simulations, however, can operate in isolation from their clinical context, ignoring the learning needs of individuals within a real health care environment. To realise its full potential as a learning aid, simulation must be used alongside clinical practice and linked closely with it.