importance of a simulator lab?

[NehsNairb]

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I was wondering how useful and important a human simulator lab is to a medical education. I'm trying to choose between a school that has a sim lab and one that doesn't. I guess my question is for students here who go to schools that have one. Do you think it provided a significant benefit to your med education or was it just a perk like videotaped lectures? Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Koko]

I love it, but can't imagine it being the dealbreaker for a decision unless ALL else were equal. There are real benefits, particularly for clinical care/decision making and procedure practice. You may want to ask how often you'll use it or even be allowed access since they tend to be used heavily and often.

 

[jennyboo]

It's not important at all. It won't make a hair of difference to your education. Don't make your decision based on whether or not the school has a simulator.

Same thing happened to me when I went on residency interviews. Many of the residency programs showed us their simulators. While many great institutions have great simulation facilities, many crappy ones do as well, and many truly excellent institutions have no simulators.

My school had a simulator. I saw and used it a total of twice (read: 2 times) throughout the ENTIRE four years, and barely learned anything from it. Useless.

 

[Ypo.]

In my opinion, simulators are only good when you can't see actual patients. And I don't think a simulator will ever be as good as interacting with a real patient.

Plus, you may be surprised to hear this, but during your first 2 years of medical school, you will pray to have clinical skills kept to a minimum because you are so busy with your other classes.

 

[BozoSparky]

some people at my school love the simulator. i can't seem to get into it.

Edit: i am a first year, just so you know. the simulator might be of some use later. thought i'd add that after reading koko's post!

 

[Koko]

It's not important at all. It won't make a hair of difference to your education. Don't make your decision based on whether or not the school has a simulator.

Same thing happened to me when I went on residency interviews. Many of the residency programs showed us their simulators. While many great institutions have great simulation facilities, many crappy ones do as well, and many truly excellent institutions have no simulators.

My school had a simulator. I saw and used it a total of twice (read: 2 times) throughout the ENTIRE four years, and barely learned anything from it. Useless.

Obviously if you only see/use it twice in four years it will be near useless. That's why I encouraged the op to inquire about how often he/she will have access to it, scheduled or on their own time.

There is great utility and benefit to simulation labs and that's why they are increasing in use and complexity. As a med student (and resident), you can practice clinical skills, procedures in isolation, and decision making in fairly complex scenarios that can be tailored to your knowledge level. There are many benefits: multitasking in real time, practicing skills that are difficult to do on real patients on a repeated basis (central lines, intubations, etc.), pt assessment at various points during care, particularly after certain interventions or lack of action on your part, learning how to work on a team to care for a pt and eventually leading the team. Afterward, assessing your abilities and those of others has great value as well. It will also allow you to see "pt cases" you may not see at all or in sufficient quantity or frequency by the random luck of the draw on your rotations. I know that it made a difference for me and others at my school.

Again, it depends on how frequently you will use it as part of your curriculum and how much access you have to it on your own time.

 

[subtle1epiphany]

My school just opened a brand new Learning Assessment Center...I met a guy from Wayne State a couple weeks ago trying to get a look at it.
Obviously I haven't had any experience with them, so take this with a grain of salt:
I'm sure that if you're able to get to the machines they're useful. Otherwise schools wouldn't be purchasing them (aside from the PR use 😉 ). So the most impt factor in that issue is the ratio of machines to students and how often you'll be able to use them. So that's a factor.
Still I'd be very hard pressed to say that they're even close to the experience you'll get in a clinic with real patients. You want real contact. Early if that's your thing; I like early contact, but I don't know if it's proven to be better.
There are some things that some machines can do that your average pt can't, newer machines can mimick several symptoms of an acute situation. You'd have to wait for a pt with that pathology in real life. I've heard that they're great for emergency simulations or dx and tx of these issues, without any risk to real pts. Some even allow you to inject fluids and will respond appropriately. That's obviously safer for learning the first ropes than a real pt. However, it will never substitute for a real pt.
Just some thoughts that I think are pertinent.
Regardless, I'd argue that this is a very minor consideration in your decision to attend. More impt would almost everything, so many schools are buying these, so chances are you'll have the chance to use them.

 

[Medicfletch]

I think it can be a valuable asset to supplementing your didactics but should not be your deal breaker.

The Human Patient Simulators are becoming increasingly incorporated into our curriculum. During physiology, instead of a lecture on introductory EKG interpretation, we were split into groups of 5 and were given a clinical scenario and taken into the simulator which reacted to our actions as a real patient would. We approached it as we would a real patient and proceeded with our assessments. Upon the completion of the lab, we as a group had to identify the EKG and the physiological basis for it and then present it to the entire class. It helped incorporate the physiology into a real world clincial application. We will also be using them in Medical Microbiology and Infectious diseases in a similar manner where we are presented with a patient, complete our assessment, form a differential and then go to the lab to perform lab tests to determine a diagnosis by ruling out things from our differentials.