BROOKLYN —As part of its residency training program, the Brooklyn Hospital Center has opened a new Simulation Center equipped with state-of the art technology, permitting medical residents and student nurses to practice interventions on highly realistic, computer-controlled mannequins and other devices that replicate human tissue and biological systems.
“We now have technology that enables us to offer more and more varied clinical experiences,” says Richard Becker, M.D., president and CEO of the hospital. “Practicing procedures in this setting fine tunes technical and clinical skills, provides training in making complex diagnosis and treatment choices and builds confidence.”
“The technology used in the Simulation Center is changing the face of medical education,” says Benson Yeh, M.D., the hospital’s chief academic officer. “Nearly all residency-level education used to take place in a traditional hospital setting. By creating a ‘virtual’ patient in a virtual clinical setting, we can provide residents and nurses with real-life scenarios and give them hands-on experience with procedures, laparoscopic techniques and cardiac arrest.”
The Simulation Center helps students learn challenging procedures, such as inserting a central venous catheter line or performing laparoscopic surgery. In addition, the technology gives residents the chance to practice an intervention dozens of times. They can also review a video of their own work on a computer.
Medical simulation also helps residents learn how to make complex decisions about diagnosis and treatment, which requires weighing multiple pieces of information simultaneously or in quick succession.
“In order to treat a patient in distress, physicians must consider many factors, including the age and gender of the patient, vital signs, and medical history,” says Dr. Yeh. “Each piece of data serves to guide a physician’s decisions from moment to moment, as each new piece of information or change in the patient’s condition potentially leads to different choices. Simulation Centers such as ours help students acquire these judgment skills.”
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