LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It takes time and practice to get good at any profession – and rookie mistakes can, and do happen. But — when you’re practicing medicine – even small errors can bring grave consequences.
That’s why Touro University has enlisted some artificial assistance to provide students with real-world skills.
“Something’s very wrong…please, give me an epidural.”
That’s exactly what a fearful mother-to-be might say while giving birth…but this pregnant mom, and her baby, aren’t real.
“She’s a fantastic mannequin that actually truly delivers a baby, gives real feedback.”
Both mother and child are two of the high-fidelity mannequins students train on every day at Touro University’s Center for Simulation.
“We have well over 50 standardized patients that we use for the different programs. We have seven high-fidelity mannequins, we have over 300 different task trainers. We have 18-thousand square feet currently as it stands, and we’re one of the large sim centers in the state.” Casey Maurice, the Director of Clinical Simulation at Touro University Nevada shares with FOX5.
One mannequin – or “sim” – mimics the various phases of pregnancy. Others recreate a variety of other ailments.
“So these robotic mannequins, their eyes react, they have lung sounds, heart sounds, bowel sounds, they have pulses.”
Students work with the sims in a clinical setting very similar to what they’d face in the real world. They never know what ailments they’ll face on a given day, but they do know they’ll learn to treat almost all of them.
“It’s one thing to read about somebody having someone having a heart attack and another thing to see a simulated patient or to see a simulated mannequin that’s showing signs of that heart attack, and now it’s not just recognizing the signs, but recognizing everything else going on,” says Maurice.
“Getting the correct medication, the right dose, the right route. Treating the patient, choosing the other providers that need to help.”
In the real world, it’s a lot to handle with very high stakes. But in this clinic, errors are part of the learning process.
“This is a safe place to learn what those mistakes are so you can get better before you got out there and you’re treating somebody who’s family member or their lives are at stake.”
Each year, in addition to the time they spend in lectures and demonstrations, Touro students spend more than 30 thousand hours training with the sim patients. The clinic lifts those lessons out of a textbook and places them in their hands.
“They can truly say I’ve practiced this a hundred times, two hundred times prior to doing this with you,” says Maurice.
“And it really helps build up their confidence that when it comes to just knowing how to do something, they don’t have to think about it, they can go on to actually treating what they need to treat.”
Students can also feel confident knowing the simulation center just became the first in Nevada to become fully accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. That means it has surpassed standards for excellence.
When we bring it back to our students, it really showcases that we’re supporting them, their educational process, everything that they have to learn and supporting them to be the best providers that they can be for their patients whether it be when they go out on their clerkships while their still in school or even when they finish and they’re doctors out there providing care to the patient.”
Touro University has facilities all across the country and around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Its Henderson campus offers degrees in a variety of medical fields, as well as education.
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