Systematic Review of Procedural Skill Simulation in Health Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

Abstract Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have adopted procedural skill simulation, with researchers increasingly investigating simulation efforts in resource-strained settings. We aim to summarize the current state of procedural skill simulation research in LMICs focusing on methodology, clinical area, types of outcomes and cost, cost-effectiveness, and overall sustainability. We performed a comprehensive literature review of original articles that assessed procedural skill simulation from database inception until April 2022. From 5371 screened articles, 262 were included in this review. All included studies were in English. Most studies were observational cohort studies (72.9%) and focused on obstetrics and neonatal medicine (32.4%). Most measured outcome was the process of task performance (56.5%). Several studies mentioned cost (38.9%) or sustainability (29.8%). However, few articles included actual monetary cost information (11.1%); only 1 article assessed cost-effectiveness. Based on our review, future research of procedural skill simulation in LMICS should focus on more rigorous research, cost assessments, and on less studied areas.