Using Medical Simulations to Teach Pain Management Techniques

Medical patients fear pain more than anything else. Before a medical procedure, patients plead with their doctors and nurses to do whatever it takes to prevent or reduce their risk of feeling pain. Whether through medications, anesthetic injections, or physical therapy, effective pain management often depends on the availability of essential nursing supplies. It all depends on what kind of pain is to be alleviated, such as mental or physical pain.

Pain management techniques may be administered before, during, or after an advanced medical procedure or surgery. Medical students must learn how to administer these various pain management techniques because they will frequently have to use them when treating patients in all kinds of circumstances.

How Medical Simulations Can Teach Medical Students About Pain Management

Medical simulations are artificial representations of realistic medical situations that let medical students engage in experiential learning. These artificial representations come in many forms, such as virtual reality imagery, manikins, medications, and even living human beings. Medical students will engage with each medical simulation method to learn about pain management techniques throughout their medical school training.  

Below are the top four medical simulations that educate medical students about effective pain management techniques.  

1) Simulated Medications

Simulated medications are placebo medications with no actual medicine in them. However, everything about the labeling and packaging is realistic so that medical students get experience reading and understanding the information printed on them. This information pertains to the chemical ingredients, dosage recommendations, and other vital medical data that assists doctors and nurses when treating patients. 

Many pain medication techniques revolve around administering anesthetic drugs and medications for reducing and numbing pain. Medical students need experience learning about these pain relief medications and the proper quantities to give to patients who are suffering from various medical issues, such as physical injuries, mental illness, and post-recovery surgery. 

Simulated medications are the perfect learning tool for teaching medical students how to relieve painful symptoms with medication. Since the simulated medication is not real, there is no risk of harming patients by administering the wrong dosage amount. It gives medical students the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them without harming any patients.  

2) Low-Fidelity and High-Fidelity Manikins

Low-fidelity and high-fidelity manikins are popular medical simulation tools for training medical students to administer physical therapy or medical treatment techniques to reduce pain and save lives. 

The difference between low-fidelity and high-fidelity manikins is that low-fidelity manikins are merely practice dummies with little to no technological capabilities. High-fidelity manikins, on the other hand, possess sophisticated technology to make them more realistic in their responses to medical treatment. Both types of manikins can serve well in teaching pain management techniques to students.

For example, medical students could practice administering intravenous sedatives like ketamine and propofol to high-fidelity manikins to simulate suppressing pain before surgery. Depending on the manikin’s technology, it may be equipped to respond to the sedative by closing its eyes or simulating a relaxation response. 

Manikins are obviously not real people, so medical students have the freedom to make mistakes when applying pain management techniques to them. Manikins give students hands-on training in pain management without risking harm to real people, which is why they are so effective in teaching pain management to students. 

3) Virtual Reality

Virtual reality medical simulations are one of the newest and most innovative forms of medical simulation technology used in medical schools today. This technology transports medical students to a virtual clinical setting where they can experiment with implementing pain management techniques in different ways. 

What’s fun and realistic about virtual reality simulations is that they create a realistic clinical environment with virtual patients that talk and respond like actual patients. So, rather than sticking needles into a dummy or mannequin, you get to virtually simulate the process of administering pain management to lifelike virtual people to see how they would respond in real life. 

Medical students can assess their virtual patient’s physical condition and psychological emotions, feelings, and responses when treating their pain. Based on these responses, students can gain experience developing a pain management plan for the patient to follow to reduce or eliminate their pain in the future. 

4) Simulated Patients

Simulated patients are one of the most realistic forms of medical simulation used in medical schools because they are real people in an actual clinical setting. However, they are not real patients but rather ordinary people pretending to be patients to train medical students. 

Simulated patients have undergone training themselves on how to act like actual patients. When a medical student talks to them or administers a particular type of pain-relieving treatment, the simulated patients will know how to give a realistic verbal or physical response. 

The great thing about simulated patients is that they can engage in conversations with the students, which no other medical simulation can replicate. Talking to patients and listening to their descriptions of pain and discomfort can help students learn how to diagnose and treat pain in the most effective way possible. 

Of course, medical students are not administering any real medicine or treatment to the simulated patients. Instead, medical students simulate the treatment process to learn how to do it in real life, while the simulated patients simulate a realistic response to the treatment. 

Overall, simulated patients allow students to practice their communication skills when counseling and treating human patients. It is really the final step in the medical simulation process before medical students can graduate to the level of working in clinical settings to manage pain. 

Conclusion

Pain management techniques are practiced in almost every branch of medicine, whether physical or psychological. Medical simulations offer a risk-free way for medical students to learn about pain management techniques through trial and error until they perfect them. And since no actual people are at risk of injury from medical mistakes, students can have peace of mind during the entire learning process.