Much of the work undertaken in simulation training is for the acquisition of skills and the application of knowledge. Whilst there is undoubted benefit from this training it can be expensive to fund. Funding is required for the time and resources required for training and if travel and accommodation is required, to access the training, both the cost of these and backfill for staff absences. It is therefore the duty of training organisations to ensure that face-to-face simulation training is as time efficient as possible. In this presentation we present work which starts to look at educational resources that could be used to prepare students for simulation training with the aim of maximising the effectiveness of face-to-face training. The logical progression of this work is to suggest that all simulation training be looked at as simulation training systems rather than an individual training episodes. This would result in all simulation training considering a menu of preparation options for students before their simulation training. Work following training for reinforcement and refresher training could also be included in this system. It is suggested that this would lead to new developments in remote training which would improve the efficacy of training and potentially have cost saving benefits. The proposals referred to above have been developed following the delivery of a large series of tele-education training programs including a remote skills training programme. In total we have delivered tele-education courses to over 900 participants. Each participant took part in 10 sessions, once weekly for 10 weeks. This resulted in over 9,000 contacts with the participants. This work was totally funded from the fees paid by the participants and we believe is the largest study of the practical application of tele-education in healthcare. This work has led to some surprising results regarding how health service professionals access remote training materials and the cost savings which can be achieved using remote training. We believe that the learning from this work key to the future development not only of remote training but of simulation training.
