It was a horrible and bloody scene. A 67-year-old man was rushed into the trauma room following a car crash. His leg had been severed by the impact, and he had no vital signs. Luckily, this was no ordinary patient. In fact, he had been through this scenario a few hundred times already!
Welcome to Sunnybrook’s Simulation Centre, the first to be established in Canada fifteen years ago. Two full-body mannequins, and several smaller body parts (called part-task trainers) are used to train nearly 1,500 learners from a variety of disciplines every year. It’s a pretty cool way to learn, and extremely realistic. These mannequins can talk, breathe and scream, just like real patients. The teams even have mock family members barging in to add a realistic distraction.
Simulation has long been used in areas like aviation. And the purpose is simple: make your mistakes without endangering lives. The same goes for medicine: learning from errors without real-life consequences. Every scenario is videotaped, so the team can watch it later and learn from what went right and wrong.
While simulation is now done around the world, Sunnybrook is still a leader in training and research. Sunnybrook’s team also has the bragging rights of being crowned International Champions in simulation, after attending a conference with 2,000 participants!
It’s all about practicing your smarts, on a bunch of dummies. Because when it comes to real patients, getting it right is the name of the game.
