Surgical and Procedural Skills Lab

 

The Surgical and Procedure Skills Laboratory uses a full-scale operating/emergency room and four emergency bays with several human patient simulators to create highly realistic scenarios for surgical and emergency medicine training. The center’s many human patient simulators range from premature infants, to adults, to pregnant women and are used to re-create the physiology of illness. The simulators provide tactile, audio, and on-screen visual feedback and can be programmed to represent patients with a wide range of conditions. Individuals or groups practice their patient care, medical knowledge and teamwork skills under stressful conditions in order to assess their performance. Scenarios are recorded on video for debriefing by expert faculty.

As part of the Procedural Skills Lab, part task trainers provide learners at all levels with simulated scenarios designed to gain or reinforce proficiency in procedures such as laparoscopy, endoscopy, lumbar puncture, IV insertion and thoracentesis to name a few. Virtual reality simulators systems allow practice in laparoscopic and ultrasound skills to hone basic skills such as hand-eye coordination, depth perception, and ambidexterity under the guidance of expert faculty.

Working with our industry collaborators, the SimCenter has fielded and tested advanced mannequins and task trainers that can be cut open, bandaged, sutured, and have tourniquets applied to actively bleeding extremities. We have used moulage techniques to enhance commercial products to make them more realistic.