Simulation, Mastery Learning and Healthcare

Healthcare organizations, becoming increasingly complex, need to use simulation techniques as a tool to provide consistently safe care. Mastery learning techniques minimize variation in learner outcome, thus improving the consistency and cost-effectiveness of care. Today׳s organizations (and their teams of decision makers) exist within varying states of transformation. These transformational times afford opportunities to use mastery learning concepts at an organizational level and to affect necessary change(s). Evolving technologies, including simulation, have provided mechanisms to enhance system performance, reducing reliance on custom-built "problem-solving" solutions for individual system needs. As such, simulation has emerged as an increasingly necessary organizational tool in improving value-driven, consistent processes of care. Both computer-based and non-computer-based algorithms of healthcare simulations offer distinct advantages in improving system performance over traditional methods of quality improvement. Simulation as a process engineering tool, integrated with mastery learning techniques, provides powerful platforms for improving value-based care.