ROCHESTER, Minn., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayo Clinic's
Multidisciplinary Simulation Center is now one of 11 advanced,
comprehensive simulation centers in the United States to be accredited by
the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Accreditation by the ACS positions
Mayo to offer and advance medical education that will improve patient
safety by increasing health care team members' abilities to keep pace with
rapidly changing technologies.
Mayo's 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art simulation center opened in
fall 2005 as a premier teaching center for Mayo's health care
professionals. The distinction of accreditation allows the Mayo facility to
offer continuing education to visiting physicians, surgeons, emergency room
workers and other health care professionals.
Benchmark of Excellence
In its first 12 months of operation, the center hosted 4,053 learners
within classes each typically a half-day long. "This high level of
programming and usage at startup is unprecedented in any simulation center
to my knowledge," says Mayo Simulation Center's medical director, William
Dunn, M.D., who also is president-elect of the international Society for
Simulation in Healthcare (http://www.ssih.org). "We are deeply honored by
the ACS recognition. It tells us we have achieved a benchmark of
excellence."
David Farley, M.D., surgeon and vice chair for education in Mayo
Clinic's Department of Surgery in Rochester, says, "Health care needs
simulation centers of excellence such as ours to support educational
vision. We are preparing teams to care for patients not only now--but in
the future as well."
Transforming Medical Education
A comprehensive simulation center is among the newest 21st century
tools of medical education. It offers health care teams -- physicians,
surgeons, nurses, respiratory therapists, emergency room personnel and
medical students -- powerful learning opportunities to build team
competency in high-stress situations that are at once realistic, yet free
of risk to patients. Participants learn through computer simulations,
robotic mannequins programmed to respond as patients might, and human
actors cast as patients. Just as aviation pilots master complexity through
cockpit simulators, health care professionals across disciplines improve
performance and reduce errors through simulation training at Mayo Clinic.
Deep Learning
The challenge now facing medical educators is: How can health care
professionals master complex new bodies of knowledge, technologies and
procedures while also taking care of patients?
Dr. Farley says the answer is through the deep and enduring learning
that comes from practicing difficult techniques in a safe, supportive
simulation environment. "Which physician would you want working on you or
your loved one -- the one who got the test question right on an exam? Or
the one who worked with a team, the equipment and patient model in a
realistic simulated setting and had his or her performance reviewed, and
then got a chance to do it again?"
Inside Mayo's Simulation Center
The term "simulation center" can mean many things. Some medical centers
call the closet where a mannequin is kept for demonstrating cardiopulmonary
resuscitation the simulation center. Not so at Mayo Clinic. Its
Multidisciplinary Simulation Center is a newly built complex. Four of its
larger rooms can be configured and equipped to be exact replicas of Mayo
Clinic surgical suites, emergency rooms, intensive care rooms, or the
cardiac catheterization laboratory. Like independent stages in a theater,
these rooms have multipurpose functionality. Additional smaller rooms can
be configured as inpatient hospital rooms, an outpatient clinic, and other
areas.
Control booths, observation rooms, and high-tech cameras attached to
every room allow medical educators to teach new techniques and simulate
medical emergencies requiring hands-on, real-time problem solving.
Physician instructors watch scenes unfold from behind the control booth
glass. The simulated situation is often filmed and then reviewed and
critiqued by the entire health care team and instructors. Participants can
repeat the situation and practice proper responses.
The Future of Simulation Center Medicine
To assure the highest quality of health care professionals in practice,
Drs. Dunn and Farley agree that future medical licensing training programs
and board-level specialist credentialing processes should involve
outstanding performance on select simulation-based exams. Currently, the
United States' medical licensing exam process uses simulation-based exams
only minimally.
"We need to demand uniform excellence in training and assessment of
health care professionals, in fair, standardized, respectful manners --
raising the bar and modeling for others. And comprehensive, accredited
advanced simulations centers such as ours will play a pivotal role in
achieving this," says Dr. Farley.
Dr. Dunn adds, "The rationale for simulation-center-based medical
education is persuasive. Administering medical care is a high-risk
proposition, and the more experience, exposure and practice team members
receive, the likelier we are to improve the care we give to real patients,
at minimized risk. This is helping to shape the future of medical
education."
To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news. MayoClinic.com (http://www.mayoclinic.com)
is available as a resource for your health stories.
SOURCE Mayo Clinic
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Related links:
http://www.mayoclinic.com
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news http://www.ssih.org
CONTACT:
John Murphy or Susan Fargo Prosser,
+1-507-284-5005 (days), +1-507-284-2511 (evenings),
newsbureau@mayo.edu, both of the Mayo Clinic
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