Translational simulation: not ‘where?’ but ‘why?’ A functional view of in situ simulation

Healthcare simulation has been widely adopted for health professional education at all stages of training and practice and across cognitive, procedural, communication and teamwork domains. Recent enthusiasm for in situ simulation—delivered in the real clinical environment—cites improved transfer of knowledge and skills into real-world practice, as well as opportunities to identify latent safety threats and other workplace-specific issues. However, describing simulation type according to place may not be helpful. Instead, I propose the term translational simulation as a functional term for how simulation may be connected directly with health service priorities and patient outcomes, through interventional and diagnostic functions, independent of the location of the simulation activity. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s41077-017-0052-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.