One of the most difficult aspects of learning clinical medicine is the transition from classroom to hands-on experience. To facilitate this transition, the physician assistant program utilizes two Emergency Care Simulators from Medical Education Technologies, Inc.
These simulators have been integrated throughout the physician assistant curriculum. In physical diagnosis courses, they help student learn to identify various heart and lung sounds. In Clinical Medicine & Surgery and Pharmacology courses, the simulators are used to replicate clinical scenarios to augment didactic learning.
The simulators are responsive devices that are able to demonstrate a wide range of physiologic abnormalities. Students are challenged to elicit a history, perform a physical exam and treat various medical problems that the simulator reproduces. The simulators respond both verbally (through a microphone) and physically (through computer input). The simulators also respond appropriately to various medications administered to them. CPR, intubation, ventilation and catheterization are only a few of the clinical procedures that can be performed on these simulators.
The physician assistant students from the Classes of 2007 and 2008 have welcomed the addition of these simulators by providing them with meaningful names. Our first simulator has been named PATT (Physician Assistant Training Tool) and the second CAMIE (Computerized Assistant for Medical Interaction & Education) |
