Abstract:

Background:
The patient record is fast becoming digitised in the UK. Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) enable real-time sharing of information within and across the interface of care. Training is essential as sub-optimal use of EPRs increases the risk of errors. Healthcare students are increasingly exposed to EPR systems, and so need require robust training within an environment made safe for learning. A national working group with representatives from 14 Universities met to define and refine learning outcomes. These were necessary to guide teaching.

The next steps included creation, sharing, use and re-use of simulated EPRs for local use. This facilitates collaboration and sharing of learning content within and across educational institutions. As commercial EPRs are auditable and record all additions and changes, the team found that records soon became unusable for teaching and had to be rebuilt from the beginning. This was time consuming and unworkable.

Methods:
Members of the national group worked with a commercial EPR provider to explore the use of their system to specifically support healthcare simulation education rather than real clinical care. The commercial provider agreed to their system being used by academic institutions without charge, to support healthcare education. The commercial provider provided technical expertise and the working group used their academic expertise to design the EPR system for use in clinical education.

Results:
The collaboration developed and refined a new feature of the EPR, which allows creation of simulated template patient records. These templates can be used for streamlined copying and creation of new records to support teaching, and can be easily shared across institutions.

Conclusion:
Students need to learn to work with and alongside EPRs in preparation for clinical practice in digital healthcare. The working group and commercial provider addressed a key barrier to use of EPRs as part of simulation in healthcare training: the creation, sharing and re-use of EPRs to support education. Simulated EPRs as part of teaching offer new and important authenticity in the simulation of the modern clinical workplace.

Keywords:

Simulation, electronic patient records, digital healthcare.