Identification tags and learners' situational awareness during high-fidelity simulation

The high-fidelity simulation was operationalized through high equipment fidelity (functionality and responsiveness of patients, manikins, and medical instruments), high environment fidelity (real world overload demands), and high psychologic fidelity (maintaining the natural ''flow'' of a clinical scenario and participant's immersion within the scenario).5 One scenario was about a patient who had a massive amniotic fluid embolism that occurred after a complicated delivery and leading to a maternal cardiac arrest, and the alternative scenario was of a patient with postoperative malignant hyperthermia. Establishing a psychologically safe context by clarifying expectations, and establishing a "fiction contract" with participants, allows learners to engage actively in simulation despite possible disruptions to that engagement such as unrealistic aspects of the simulation.8,9 Lessons learned Situational awareness is crucial to optimal performance, both in clinical situations and simulated environments.