Simulation Center

Kern Medical houses a state-of-the-art Simulation Center, designed for those in the medical field to practice and further enhance their knowledge, skills and experience.

A simulation is a hands-on learning experience that replicates a variety of scenarios in the healthcare environment. Learners are able to develop clinical competence, practice interventions and develop confidence to transform and improve patient outcomes while in a safe learning space.

At the Simulation Center, each simulation includes a group pre-brief and debrief with an emphasis on promoting a culture of safety and a focus on 6 structural components:

• Kern Medical’s mission, vision and values
• Quality of care
• Performance improvement
• Interdisciplinary relationships
• Research
• Best practices

The Simulation Center is comprised of 11 different rooms. These rooms house various simulation mannikans, CPR, intubation and RQI resources, virtual reality tools, suture practice models, low-fidelity simulacrum for nontechnical skills, and a wet lab.

Simulation is a training and feedback method in which learners practice tasks and processes in life-like circumstances using simulation mannikins. The simulators are full-size manikins whose major organ systems have been programmed to respond appropriately to a user’s interventions. The mannikins are controlled by computer software at the control room. A variety of clinical settings may be replicated. Physiologic parameters that can be simulated include: ecg, invasive and non-invasive blood pressures, oxygen saturation, central venous pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, intracranial pressure, and body temperature.

The Kern Medical Simulation Center is a state-of-the-art health care simulation where the focus is on communication, collaboration and crisis management in order to develop skills and teamwork behaviors that are best learned actively under realistic conditions.

Each of the center’s 11 training areas are designed to reflect the realities encountered in actual care settings, and is fully functional. The center is a contiguous system designed to simulate the patient flow process with a pre-hospital room, emergency room, operating room, intensive care unit, obstetric operation room, neonatal intensive care room, hospital room, training room and pharmacy. Two of the simulation rooms are connected to the command center separated by a one-way mirror with large televisions to provide the live-stream observer participants with additional angles. Simulation sessions can be recorded and are immediately available for playback in either of the multimedia conference rooms.

Beneficiaries of Simulation

The Kern Medical Simulation Center trains a wide array of professionals throughout the healthcare continuum, including medical students, residents and fellows; staff throughout all clinical areas, as well as our surrounding community. Our clinical programs incorporate the latest technology by simulating a real clinical environment. Training also emphasizes essential safety aspects such as teamwork and communication. With simulation, extreme and challenging medical conditions with fidelity sufficient to achieve suspension of disbelief on the part of the trainee can be created on demand.

The simulation lab will also be available to our Mujeres en Medicina Health Career Pathway Program. This program works with schools in underserved areas of Kern County to bring children into our hospital where they have the opportunity to interact with different leaders in our organization and do hands-on simulation workshops to bring interest to the medical field. This program was created to help expand opportunities for low-income minority students ranging in ages 13-17 to help them learn about a variety of health careers with the hope that our program will create a pipeline for future healthcare providers.

Successful Simulation

Simulation training gives healthcare providers a new and enlightening perspective on how to handle real medical situations. Through high-fidelity scenarios that simulate genuine crisis management situations, the experience can open new chapters in the level of healthcare quality that participants provide.

Clinicians and educators partner to create innovative learning experiences and evaluations. Utilizing the web-based recording system, students can review videos, perform peer and self-assessments, set learning goals and receive feedback from faculty. Providing learners with realistic patient scenarios and clinical problem-solving challenges assures appropriate development of clinical skills, and ultimately improves whole patient care.

Simulation and Medical Education

Medical education has undergone significant changes during the last decades. One of the ways to enhance clinical competence is through Medical Simulation training. The training has been proven to have many advantages which help improve medical practitioners’ competencies, and in return, improve patient safety and reduce healthcare costs.

Medical simulation allows the acquisition of clinical skills through hands-on practice rather than an apprentice style of learning. With the recent advancements in technology, simulation tools serve as an alternative to real patients, which allows trainees to perform procedural mistakes and learn from them without the fear of harming the patient.

While hands-on learning with real patients cannot be completely replaced, simulation training provides a safe environment for learning. Making mistakes can be a valuable part of the learning process. In the simulation environment, patients are not put at risk.

In response to the effectiveness of simulations, the ACGME has strongly suggested and, in some cases, mandated the incorporation of this type of training into the curriculum of many residency programs. Additionally, many medical schools, nursing schools and paramedic schools have begun to introduce simulation into their pre-graduate training, which is reflected in the expectations of new incoming trainees, who look for the simulation capabilities of the proposed hiring institution.