CRDAMC Simulation Lab

• Graduate Medical Education
  • Emergency Med Residency
  • Family Medicine Residency
  • Certified Reg. Nurse Anesthetist
  • Interservice Phys. Assistant
  • Emer. Med Ultrasound
  • Family Med Obstetric Fellowship
  • Physical Therapy Internship
  • Emer Med Phys Asst. Fellowship
  • Social Work Internship
• Medical Library
• Population Health
• Simulation Lab

Mission and Vision

The primary mission of the Simulation Lab is to support the Graduate Medical Education (GME) residency programs in the area of medical simulation training. We also support Nursing, deployment, redeployment, refresher and code blue medical simulation training. We strive to improve patient safety, practitioner efficiency and competency in the hospital as well as improving the care of military personnel in harm's way. Our primary goal is to bring together healthcare professionals in realistic simulated environments where skills, communication, teamwork and critical thinking are practiced and taught. We will ensure that our providers are "Trained, Competent, Safe, and Ready" to care for our Soldiers and their families.

Hours and Location

Overview

Current Simulation Equipment (Updated April 2013) (.pdf file format)

The Simulation Lab provides multi disciplinary training support to all specialties. Here is a brief listing of some of the training tasks that we facilitate.

• NURSING SKILLS- Foley/Catheterization Procedures, IV Insertion, Patient Assessment for Expectant Mother, Child, Infant and Adult.
• ADVANCED CLINICAL SKILLS- Central Line Insertion, Inter Uterine Device Insertion, Lumbar Puncture, Epidural Insertion, Thoracentesis, and Paracentesis.
• CODE BLUE TRAINING- Develop team proficiencies and record/playback training onsite for performance review.

About the Simulation Lab and the Central Simulation Committee (CSC)

The CRDAMC Simulation Lab is a branch of the office of Graduate Medical Education and is committed to promoting medical simulation as a way to:

• Ensure provider competency
• Reduce medical errors
• Improve patient safety
• Reduce health care costs

CSC Mission Statement

The CSC will strive to be a leader, both nationally and internationally, in the area of simulation training and will apply all of its efforts to ensure that our providers are "Trained, Competent, Safe, and Ready" to complete the critical mission of caring for our soldiers and their families.

The Central Simulation Committee was formed in April 2007. CRDAMC is one of 10 Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) selected to meet this need. Funding provided by the Advances in Medical Practice (AMP) and the Army Medical Command (MEDCOM). The CSC members are Directors of Medical Education, Specialty Advisors (appointed), Simulation Medical Director (appointed), Simulation Administrator, and Program Directors from each of the 10 MTFs (TAMC, Madigan AMC, Womack AMC, Wm Beaumont MC, Darnall AMC, DeWitt ACH, Eisenhower AMC, SAUSHEC/Brooke AMC, Martin ACH, NCC/WRAMC/USUHS).

What is Medical Simulation?

Simulation is a training and feedback method in which learners practice tasks and processes in lifelike circumstances using models or virtual reality, with feedback from observers, peers, actor-patients, and video cameras to assist improvement in skills.

Computer-based medical simulation provides a realistic and economical set of tools to improve and maintain the skills of health care providers adding a valuable dimension to medical training similar to professional training in aviation, defense, maritime, and nuclear energy. Medical simulators allow individuals to review and practice procedures as often as required to reach proficiency without harming the patient.

In medicine, sophisticated mannequins, known as patient simulators provides health care professionals with a computer-based patient that breathes, responds to drugs, talks, and drives all clinical monitors in the operating room, e.g., blood pressure and pulse rate.

Task trainers provide a simulated subset of functionality, such as how to give a smallpox inoculation or how to insert a chest tube.

Computer-based training provides software programs that train and assess clinical knowledge and decision-making skills.

Simulated/standardized patients allow students to interact with actors trained to act as patients providing students with valuable feedback on, among other things, bedside manner.

Medical simulation is a cross-disciplinary effort that brings together physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals across a variety of disciplines with computer scientists, researchers, educators, and human factors engineers.

Why use Medical Simulation?

Currently, there are hundreds of schools in the United States providing "hands on" health care education to medical, nursing, and allied health students. These schools predominately use the apprenticeship model as its main teaching style, often referred to in medicine as "do one, see one and teach one."

A health care provider's ability to react prudently in an unexpected situation is one of the most critical factors in creating a positive outcome in a medical emergency, regardless of whether it occurs on the battlefield, freeway, or hospital emergency room. This ability, however, is not a skill that one is born with, but rather it is learned and developed with time, training, practice, and repetition.

Today, advances in technology have created new and better, methods for teaching the practice of medicine and reinforcing best practices. One of the most exciting innovations in health care is in the field of medical simulation.

As reported in the "Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation":

• Medical errors kill as many as 98,000 people annually at a total national cost of between $37 to $50 billion for adverse events and between $17 to $29 billion for preventable adverse events.
• Institute of Medicine Nursing shortages, which are expected to reach 20% by the year 2020, are forcing some health care facilities to implement mandatory overtime for nurses and increased patient care loads, contributing to an already high number of stress related errors.
• Bioterrorism threats and concerns are forcing institutions and governments to reconsider how quickly providers can be trained and ready to react to a health crisis.
• Reserve troops are deployed into combat situations with insufficient time and resources to prepare them to provide medical care in battlefield conditions.
• Medical residents are operating under strict new rules that limit them to an 80-hour work week leaving less time for direct interactions between students and instructors.
• Employing medical simulation techniques can help move medicine from the old "see one, do one, teach one" method to a "see one, practice many, do one" model for success

Pictures of simulations CRDAMC has previously conducted and some of the task trainers (Caution-Blood used on some manikins in the pictures)

External Links

• Advanced initiatives in Medical Simulation (AIMS)
• What Is Medical Simulation?