End-user evaluations of a personal computer-based pediatric advanced life support simulator

: To inform further development of a personal computer-based Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) simulator, we wished to understand users' perceptions of this new technology. Specifically, we sought to determine whether the simulator was perceived as an effective training tool, whether it filled a gap in the users' current training regimen, and whether these perceptions were impacted by professional affiliation and PALS training history.

: We surveyed multidisciplinary health care workers in a tertiary care pediatric hospital who used our simulator.

: A total of 789 users completed an evaluation of the simulator. Ninety-five percent of respondents agreed that the PALS simulator is an effective educational tool. Eighty-nine percent agreed that the simulator filled a gap in their training, although physicians agreed with this statement more strongly than nurses (P = 0.001). Prior resuscitation training history did not impact whether users perceived that the simulator filled a curricular gap. Users most commonly cited the simulator's realism, its capacity to facilitate practice, and its help feature as the top three qualities they most appreciated. Users' top three suggestions for improving the simulator included provision of a structured tutorial, specific user interface improvements, and encouragement of more widespread access to the simulator.

: Hospital-based pediatric providers are open to using personal computer-based simulation to provide on-demand refresher training in the cognitive aspects of PALS. Through its capacity to reach a large number of health care workers without the need for instructor presence, this technology could be used to help develop a more targeted role for mannequin simulation.