The Simcup Morocco: Exploration of the concept, innovative pedagogical relevance, and perspectives

Abstract

Introduction

The Simcup is a leading national event in the medical field, with clinical competition in terms of simulation. Here, groups of medical students from different faculties in the country participate in patient simulation scenarios, particularly in the field of emergency and disaster medicine. Our aim is to present SIMCUP Morocco in a comprehensive way. This involves describing the participation process, strategies for success, elucidating the format, stages, and timetable. In addition, we aim to provide an impartial assessment of its importance, its educational value for medical students, and its influence on their training.

Materials and methods

We developed a questionnaire covering 7 key areas to assess the effectiveness of the Simcup: Teamwork, communication, debriefing, psychological aspects, overall perspectives, areas for improvement, and a bonus category. We collected responses from 120 medical students representing various faculties in Morocco.

Results

A total of 120 participated in our study, with an average age between 25 and 26 years. The participation rate of virtual staff varied, with a majority indicating their presence at 47.5%. Notably, 81% of students strongly agreed with the importance of implementing simulation as an assessment modality within faculties. These results argue in favor of the relevance of Simcup and underline the superiority of simulation-based learning over traditional clinical teaching, both as a teaching method and for the evaluation of learning outcomes.

Conclusion

Despite the limited number of studies investigating the comparative effectiveness of simulation-based learning versus traditional clinical teaching, our results highlight the value of simulation-based approaches in medical education.