Simulation is an advanced modality for observing group dynamics and building a more effective team. A wider breadth of medical crisis scenarios can be recreated using a high fidelity simulation manikin in a safe, flexible, and realistic teaching environment when compared to textbooks, lectures and computer based learning.

 

Benefits

 

Until now, teamwork and crisis management have been difficult concepts to actually teach or to evaluate. Optimal patient outcomes depend on a team’s knowledge, efficiency, and ability to work together. Through simulation the Health Care Team can learn the physiologic components of crisis management, equipment knowledge, technical skills, and the leadership and teamwork needed to successfully deliver exceptional health care.

Simulation has obvious benefits in all areas of health care including trauma, critical care, anesthesia, obstetrics, nursing, and emergency medicine. It is also being used in implementing and testing clinical protocols and in educational research.

The Simulation Center at Hartford Hospital is the home for three simulators; each residing within its own living quarters designed to replicate an operating room suite, a trauma/resuscitation emergency medicine bay, and the ICU setting. Thus, participants may train in a setting similar to their actual work environments to recreate an atmosphere of realism. Working in this environment lends support to the simulator’s extended capabilities to mimic multiple types of acute crises and patient care scenarios.