"Teaching to learn and learning to teach", these are the basic tasks to be taken into account by professor using simulation methodology, according to a study by the University of Navarra.

Applied to the field of medicine and thinking of the student, the first involves knowing and being able to graduate -during learning- the difficulty of the skill or skill to be taught; and the second refers to the handling of the mannequin or simulator, in all its potentialities, to achieve greater realism in the teaching that involves and engages the student in an active and meaningful way. Gregorio Mañeru, from the School of Medicine, is the author of the doctoral thesis "Simulación Educativa en Medicina. Study of teaching competences", which has been recently presented.

It is concluded in the research that the application of this methodology requires from the teacher a training in specific competences to achieve the maximum use of its potential. These competencies are specified in receiving an updated pedagogical training plan that allows him/her to guide the internship; a willingness to reflect and self-assessment on his/her own task; a commitment to achieve the maximum knowledge and mastery of the simulators; and that seeks to personalize the teaching and the assessment.

To all this must be added the presence of high-tech media that help to stimulate motivation in learning. According to Mañeru, "these are magnificent tools that the teacher must learn to handle and make the best possible use of in order to encourage the interest and motivation of student to learn more and better".

New challenges leading to new teaching responsibilities

For the author of the study, all this technological dynamic places the professor in front of new demands and responsibilities that modify its usual managerial role to make it available to be guide and financial aid in the learning of student. "The professor is now required to respond in areas related to: communication, the promotion of work as a team, the correction style, the establishment of relationships and feedback and, above all, an open attitude and the ability to innovate," he points out.

From the research it can be deduced that the adaptation of educational plans in universities (Bologna Plan) has resulted in more hours of practice and a evaluation of the student's total work from three different approaches: how he/she achieves the acquisition of the theoretical knowledge , how he/she carries out the internship of what he/she has learned and what is his/her attitude-commitment and participation in the process.

According to the doctor, what is unique and remarkable about learning with simulation is that the trainee faces the challenge of making the decision to act in a specific status , with the means and possibilities of that moment, ensuring that his clinical reasoning does not remain only in the technical goal . "The student -concludes the doctor- cannot do without the unavoidable ethical dimension in the interpersonal relationship, since the ultimate goal of this training is to improve patient safety and the quality of care".