Issue link: http://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1157351
22 Wichita is unique among KU's medical campuses in its use of standardized patients – people trained to simulate patients – playing the role of family members instead of patients, bringing a live dimension to sessions alongside the lifelike manikins. Matt Lierz, currently a second-year student from St. Joseph, Missouri, recalls a session involving hypoxia, or a deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues of the body. "It wasn't an emergent scenario, but the determination of the severity of the hypoxia was fairly intense," Lierz said. "The standardized family added a layer of complexity and a layer of strain on your clinical practical knowledge. It made the scenario more dicult than I imagined, having to communicate with two people." Despite the pressures, students say the center's sta is supportive but willing to push them. That's the intention, said Erin Doyle, program director. "We're not quite Vegas, but what happens in sim stays in sim," Doyle said. "We're not going back to their instructors saying, 'Well, Joe and Susie really had a hard time with it.' We are trying to create a safe place for them to explore. So if the student doesn't know how to put on EKG leads, we'll fumble through it together." At the Wichita campus, the classes of first- and second-year students are divided into small groups for case-based and other learning components. At the Simulation Center, those groups are usually divided in two, with students rotating through dierent roles. They'll work through scenarios, allowing student actions and decisions to guide each session, and consider how each case has multiple treatment options. Brumfield takes part in all first- and second-year sessions, which involve a good deal of debriefing where students and sta can discuss what went right and wrong, and address questions about the science behind what they've done. "We encourage and, at times, nag them to take turns in the leader role, and become comfortable with that," Doyle said. "We give all students, even the quiet ones, an opportunity to step out and be the leader. Nothing is a trick or 'gotcha' or a 'you did the wrong thing and your patient's dead.' " The center has three other sta members besides Brumfield and Doyle, who is a nurse: Mary Koehn, a nurse and education associate professor with extensive experience in curriculum development; Gary Tolle, a teaching professor and retired paramedic; and Jeanne Raitt, coordinator. The center became part of KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 2017, years after its start in about 2000 as an organization that later became the nonprofit HealthSim United. Training grows in complexity and scope The manikins — adult, child and infant — used in the second-floor lab of the medical school are as realistic as possible. Eyes blink, pupils dilate, chests rise and fall with breath. Via sta present in a sound booth, manikins can talk to medical students and others training at the center. They can exhibit cardiac disruptions and vital signs and deliver babies that cry.