Simulation Center

Residents working in the Simulation Center

UAMS has a dedicated simulation center with a capable team of highly trained and experienced simulation operation specialists and simulation educators who have extensive simulation education training and experience of conducting a wide array of simulations and faculty development courses as well as maintaining and repairing simulation manikins. The center is a 7,800 sq. foot space that adjoins the hospital and is close to the academic colleges; the center serves the medical center staff and six academic colleges (Health Professions, Graduate School, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health). Our facility provides a realistic, stimulating environment, in which learners can engage in active learning. Real scrub sinks, compressed medical gases (air), wall suction, overhead lamps, and simulated trauma bays, operating rooms, patient rooms, and recovery areas enhance realism.  The authentic clinical feel enables learners to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves in scenarios.

The anesthesiology graduate medical education (GME) simulation curriculum focuses on procedural skills and anesthesia crisis resource management. These sessions are conducted primarily in the simulation center as well as in different locations like the labor and delivery floor or in the operating room. This allows us to interact and work alongside other team members in a collaborative multidisciplinary method to enhance skills and improve patient outcomes.

1. Procedural skill training in the intern year includes:
   • airway management
   • peripheral venous line placement
   • arterial linen placement
   • central venous line placement with ultrasound guidance
   • nerve block with ultrasound guidance
   • epidural and spinal placement
   • epidural placement with ultrasound guidance
   • fiber optic bronchoscopy practice and
   • introduction to the TEE using a virtual TEE simulator
2. Standardized Patient Interaction: Throughout the training, residents experience interactions with standardized patients for learning various skills in a real-time manner.
   • Perioperative patient assessment workshop with standardized patients
   • Standardized patient regional anesthesia surface anatomy sessions
   • Mock OSCE practice sessions for clinical scenarios
3. High Fidelity Crisis Events: In addition to skills training, we conduct high fidelity crisis intervention simulation scenarios in the simulated operating room, recovery room, and labor and delivery settings as well as in situ. The scenarios allow the residents to learn basic and advanced crisis management skills in the safety of the simulation lab. Each session is followed by an extensive debriefing session led by experienced faculty instructors to facilitate resident learning.
4. In-situ Sessions: In addition to high fidelity scenarios in the simulation lab, residents have the opportunity to participate and lead in-situ sessions in the labor and delivery suite for maternal crisis events. The multidisciplinary sessions include nurses, obstetric, and anesthesia residents, and allow the residents to collaborate and participate in a wonderful learning exercise in managing maternal crisis events.
5. Mock OSCE Sessions: The simulation team also works to provide training and practice for the ABA OSCE exam. In their graduating year, the CA3 class gets an opportunity to practice in a real-life setting for the mock OSCEs. Due to COVID-19, we were unable to offer on-site sessions for our residents. We developed a Virtual OSCE curriculum that allowed us to conduct mock practice sessions for our graduating residents in June 2020; these sessions included interaction with standardized patients as well as technical skills stations in conjunction with faculty debriefing for each station.