2009 Volume 40 Issue 5 Pages 361-365
1) Simulation-based training is critical for medical students to acquire clinical skills. We sent questionnaires to all 80 medical schools in Japan asking about the status of clinical skills laboratories and received responses from 73 medical schools.
2) Fifty-nine schools have skills laboratories. Forty-nine schools have curricula integrating simulation-based skills training. The 3 most common apparatuses are venopuncture trainers, basic life support mannequins, and skin-suturing trainers. Lung and heart sound auscultation trainers, advanced cardiac life support mannequins, and ophthalmoscopy trainers are used at more than 50 schools.
3) Thirty-two of the 59 schools have simulation-based skills-training courses that are not included in the undergraduate medical curriculum. Medical staff and people in the community are participating. The four most common courses are, in descending order, basic life support, intermediate cardiac life support, advanced cardiac life support, and automated external defibrillation, which are held at more than 16 schools.
