Today the Clinical Skills Center is dedicated to allowing learners to grow into effective
healthcare providers by mastering both the science and the art of medicine.
This simulated outpatient clinic provides a realistic training ground for teaching,
and assessment via human simulation. Human Simulation or Simulated Patient (SP) methodology
has long been established as a valid, reliable, and practical method of teaching and
evaluating healthcare learners. The audio-visual equipment available in each exam
room allows learners to be evaluated and to receive immediate feedback from their
simulated patient and instructor. Working with our highly trained simulated patients
affords learners the invaluable gift of safe hands-on experience with essential skills,
such as effective communication skills, medical history taking, and physical examination.
SPs further support learning by providing feedback about how it felt to be the patient
or family member receiving care from the learner. The goal of working with simulated
patients is to equip future healthcare professionals with the medical knowledge and
empathy needed to deliver compassionate, high-quality patient care.
Rooms
The Clinical Skills Center includes 24 exam rooms that mimic an outpatient clinical
environment, two classrooms for prebriefing and debriefing as well as a backstage
area with a central control room, observation space and Simulated Patient Training
room.
Each Learner station in the public hallway is height adjustable and equipped with
a computer for pre and post-encounter review and data entry. Each exam room has a
dry erase board, telephone and two separate entrances, one entrance is used by learners
via the public hallway and the other entrance is used by SPs to access the exam room
via the backstage area. Audio-visual equipment allows video recording and remote live
observation during the simulation. A computer and standard medical equipment are available
in each exam room, such as an exam table, a wall unit with an ophthalmoscope, otoscope,
and blood pressure gauge. Tongue depressors, cotton swabs, tuning forks, a reflex
hammer, and gloves are typically the standard supplies in each room.
Debrief and Feedback
Feedback may come from faculty, and/or SPs. It may be verbal and/or written depending
on the objectives of the event. Immediate feedback/debriefing with the SP is the preferred
exam format for formative simulations whenever logistically possible.
SPs have been trained in a modified version of the PEARLS method of debriefing [1]
in which they ask the learner about their thoughts and feelings on the encounter and
discuss the positives, points for improvement, and share how it felt for them to be
the patient during the simulation. This SP feedback and debrief will typically focus
on learner self-assessment, communication, and bedside manner. Verbal debriefing with
the SP is delivered in the exam room following the encounter.
Faculty feedback typically focuses on the medical aspects of the encounter – history
taking, physical exam skills, medical knowledge, and critical thinking.
Checklists—written feedback—allow faculty and SPs to score performance in various
categories.
Learners can provide anonymous feedback about their simulation at any time using the
QR code linked to the survey. Survey QR codes are provided in classrooms and at each
building exit.
Reference
[1] Bajaj K, Meguerdichian M, Thoma B, Huang S, Eppich W, Cheng A. The PEARLS Healthcare
Debriefing Tool. Acad Med. 2018, 93(2), 336.
