Simulation has become an integral part of the health professions' education. It may come as educational and training concepts with different levels of technology involvement and may serve different purposes (e.g. practice of clinical skills, fostering of communication skills). A dramatic increase of simulation techniques in health professions has been seen. Doctors and nurses use it as a matter of course. When it comes to the pharmacist, integration of simulation into pharmacy curricula has not yet advanced to a comparable extent. What may be reasons for a slower uptake of simulation trainings in pharmacy education? Are potential benefits of these techniques not yet evident enough to convince decision-makers at pharmacy schools? What can be learnt from early adopters of simulation in pharmacists' education regarding risks and boundaries, and achievements and chances?

 

 

• To form a knowledge base about different levels of simulation concepts, with their strengths and weaknesses, used in pharmacy education;

• To link this knowledge base with good practice examples of using simulation as part of pharmacy education;

• To illustrate potential approaches for implementation of basic simulation concepts in settings where these are not yet being used.

 

 

After the presentation the participant should be able:

 

• to outline the rationale, advantages and disadvantages of simulation use in pharmacy education;

• to identify competencies of a pharmacists that are ideally taught by means of simulation.