CMED standardized patient and clinical simulation center opens
The Central Michigan University College of Medicine celebrated the grand opening of the standardized patient and clinical simulation center Friday.
The center has two major components: the standardized patient center and the simulation center.
The standardized patient center consists of people portraying a patient who experiences various symptoms and illnesses. The purpose of the center is to improve communication skills with patients, bedside manner and finding diagnoses for different ailments, while the simulation center uses robotic-like mannequins and will allow medical students to perform interventions, as well as gain clinical practice and experience.
Steven Vance, a fixed-term faculty member with the College of Medicine, said the center will provide unique learning experiences for medical students.
"The purpose of this center is to use simulation-based methods to interact with patients and perform procedures to treat acute life threats in a safe learning environment," Vance said. "We want to train our medical students in a professional environment."
The total cost allotment, aside from construction costs for the simulation center, was about $1.5 million.
This amount includes all of the simulation equipment, mannequins and medical equipment students will use to treat patients in the simulation center.
Vance said he hopes the simulation center will help develop the teamwork skills of future medical students.
"Our goal is for students to work in teams and develop skills that are paramount to patient care," he said.
While the primary purpose of the simulation center is to train medical students, Vance said he also sees the center serving the university and non-medical students by holding different classes and workshops.
"We held a CPR course (on Friday), which was offered free for students as part of our grand opening," Vance said.
The majority of medical schools in the state of Michigan have a similar simulation center, and the popularity of such centers has continued to grow as advances in technology and research allow for more innovative teaching methods.
The center will be located inside the CMED building, in room 2404.
