advancements in simulation-based assessments for health professionals: insights from a scoping review

Background and objective: over the past 20 years, simulation has emerged as a key instrument in healthcare education, first for training and more recently for performance evaluation. however, the lack of clinical relevance and realism in traditional assessment methods has drawn criticism. given their increasing use and the difficulty of assessing clinical competence, this scoping review was conducted to investigate the scope and features of simulation-based assessments (sbas) in health professions education.materials and methods: this study adhered to the joanna briggs institute (jbi) scoping review methodology. we searched ovid medline, scopus, web of science, cinahl, apa psycinfo, and embase all the way through. we also manually searched two important journals, clinical simulation in nursing and simulation in healthcare, for articles that were published between 2021 and 2024 and were related to the topic. we also looked through the reference lists of relevant reviews. after removing duplicates in endnote x20, 49 studies that met the criteria were included and analyzed using descriptive and thematic content analysis in microsoft excel.results: the review pinpointed essential target demographics, applications, challenges, benefits, drawbacks, and requisite conditions pertaining to sbas. out of the 49 studies included, most were from the us and looked at specialists, emergency medicine providers, and nurses. three main simulation modalities were identified: human participant (e.g., standardized patients), equipment-based simulators (both low and high-fidelity), and computer-based (virtual reality/screen-based). the challenges primarily pertained to the study's realism, validity, reliability, and feasibility.conclusions: more and more people in healthcare education are seeing simulation-based assessments as a useful way to test clinical competence and safety. despite its advantages, sba implementation faces significant challenges related to high cost and limitations in realism. before adding sbas to assessment frameworks, it is important to have clear rules and plans.background and objective: over the past 20 years, simulation has emerged as a key instrument in healthcare education, first for training and more recently for performance evaluation. however, the lack of clinical relevance and realism in traditional assessment methods has drawn criticism. given their increasing use and the difficulty of assessing clinical competence, this scoping review was conducted to investigate the scope and features of simulation-based assessments (sbas) in health professions education.materials and methods: this study adhered to the joanna briggs institute (jbi) scoping review methodology. we searched ovid medline, scopus, web of science, cinahl, apa psycinfo, and embase all the way through. we also manually searched two important journals, clinical simulation in nursing and simulation in healthcare, for articles that were published between 2021 and 2024 and were related to the topic. we also looked through the reference lists of relevant reviews. after removing duplicates in endnote x20, 49 studies that met the criteria were included and analyzed using descriptive and thematic content analysis in microsoft excel.results: the review pinpointed essential target demographics, applications, challenges, benefits, drawbacks, and requisite conditions pertaining to sbas. out of the 49 studies included, most were from the us and looked at specialists, emergency medicine providers, and nurses. three main simulation modalities were identified: human participant (e.g., standardized patients), equipment-based simulators (both low and high-fidelity), and computer-based (virtual reality/screen-based). the challenges primarily pertained to the study's realism, validity, reliability, and feasibility.conclusions: more and more people in healthcare education are seeing simulation-based assessments as a useful way to test clinical competence and safety. despite its advantages, sba implementation faces significant challenges related to high cost and limitations in realism. before adding sbas to assessment frameworks, it is important to have clear rules and plans.