BACKGROUND: Acquiring knowledge and experience on high-energy trauma is often difficult due to infrequent exposure. This creates a need for training which is specifically tailored for complex prehospital conditions. Simulation provides an opportunity for ambulance nurses to focus on the actual problems in clinical practice and to develop knowledge regarding trauma care. The aim of this study was to describe what ambulance nurses and paramedics in prehospital emergency care perceive as important for learning when participating in simulation exercises.

METHODS: An integrative literature review was carried out. Criteria for inclusion were primary qualitative and quantitative studies, where research participants were ambulance nurses or paramedics, working within prehospital care settings, and where the research interventions involved simulation.

RESULTS: It was perceived important for the ambulance nurses' learning that scenarios were advanced and possible to simulate repeatedly. The repetitions contributed to increase the level of experience, which in turn improved the patients care. Moreover, realism in the simulation and being able to interact and communicate with the patient were perceived as important aspects, as was debriefing, which enabled the enhancement of knowledge and skills. The result is presented in the following categories: To gain experience, To gain practice and To be strengthened by others.

CONCLUSION: Learning through simulation does not require years of exposure to accident scenes. The simulated learning is enhanced by realistic, stressful scenarios where ambulance nurses interact with the patients. In this study, being able to communicate with the patient was highlighted as a positive contribution to learning. However, this has seldom been mentioned in a previous research on simulation. Debriefing is important for learning as it enables scrutiny of one's actions and thereby the possibility to improve and adjust one's caring. The effect of simulation exercises is important on patient outcome.

Background:High energy trauma is rare and, as a result, training of prehospital care providers often takes placeduring the real situation, with the patient as the object for the learning process. Such training could instead becarried out in the context of simulation, out of danger for both patients and personnel. The aim of this study wasto provide an overview of the development and foci of research on simulation in prehospital care practice.Methods:An integrative literature review were used. Articles based on quantitative as well as qualitative researchmethods were included, resulting in a comprehensive overview of existing published research. For publishedarticles to be included in the review, the focus of the article had to be prehospital care providers, in prehospitalsettings. Furthermore, included articles must target interventions that were carried out in a simulation context.Results:The volume of published research is distributed between 1984- 2012 and across the regions North America,Europe, Oceania, Asia and Middle East. The simulation methods used were manikins, films, images or paper, live actors,animals and virtual reality. The staff categories focused upon were paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs),medical doctors (MDs), nurse and fire fighters. The main topics of published research on simulation with prehospitalcare providers included: Intubation, Trauma care, Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Ventilation and Triage.Conclusion:Simulation were described as a positive training and education method for prehospital medical staff. Itprovides opportunities to train assessment, treatment and implementation of procedures and devices under realisticconditions. It is crucial that the staff are familiar with and trained on the identified topics, i.e., intubation, trauma care,CPR, ventilation and triage, which all, to a very large degree, constitute prehospital care. Simulation plays an integralrole in this. The current state of prehospital care, which this review reveals, includes inadequate skills of prehospital staffregarding ventilation and CPR, on both children and adults, the lack of skills in paediatric resuscitation and the lack ofknowledge in assessing and managing burns victims. These circumstances suggest critical areas for further training andresearch, at both local and global levels