The Simulation and Skills Labs:

• Enhancing the correlation between basic science concepts and clinical practice by introducing clinical activities earlier in training.

• Encouraging students to learn from their successes and mistakes in a safe learning environment without risk to actual patients.

• Assessing student competence in specific critical care scenarios as part of clinical performance examinations - a role that Standardized Patients cannot play due to limitations of real human simulation.

• Incorporation of mannequin-based simulation with Standardized Patient scenarios to improve student history taking, physical exam, patient education, and interpersonal skills (end of life issues, giving bad news, communication with family, interaction with other medical staff during a critical event).

• Improving the health care team by fostering interprofessional activities, team work, and group problem solving strategies utilizing emergency care scenarios.

The Skills Lab  is a multipurpose room in which students learn and hone their clinical examination and clinical procedure proficiency.   Several types of task trainers are used to allow students to practice a specific skill, such as suturing, IV insertion, intubation, central venous line placement, arterial blood gas collection, etc.  Task trainers are mannequins that are designed to replicate a specific anatomical region (arm, torso, etc) and allow students to learn the steps of clinical procedures.  The goal of learning with a task trainer is to familiarize a learner with the equipment and skill first, so that when a real life situation occurs, the learner already has the knowledge and dexterity necessary to integrate it into a more complex situation.  Skills training allows a learner to work at their own pace and master a skill through deliberate practice.

Virtual Simulation:  The Skills Lab also hosts a number of software based simulation programs and tutorials designed to enhance clinical decision making and guide skill development.  These include a number of virtual patient simulations (interactive computer-based patient encounters) as well as interactive tutorials focused on specific skills such as heart and lung auscultation, EKG, and imaging interpretation.