Projects
Emergency Medicine Residency Education – Adult Simulation
Recognizing the importance of experiential learning, efforts have been put forth to simulate various medical diseases and processes. We employ different levels of fidelity with regard to simulators from simple task trainers to more advanced high-fidelity patient simulators. Our sessions can concentrate on certain disease processes with an emphasis on their recognition and treatment. We also use simulation to work on teamwork and system based issues with the Emergency Department nurses and staff with in-situ sessions in the Emergency Department covering such topics as resuscitation and STEMI care. These sessions typically occur each month. Emergency Medicine Residency Education – Pediatric Simulation
The Emergency Medicine Simulation program devotes a great deal of energy and time to educate residents in the management of pediatric emergencies through the use of high fidelity simulation. There are scenarios presented every other month as part of educational themes for pediatric conference days. These are designed to add practical experiences for residents that allow them to apply the day's didactics in a high fidelity simulation scenario. These scenarios are regularly conducted in a multi-disciplinary context that includes our nursing staff in both the scenario and debrief. We also participate and deliver scenarios designed for inpatient settings to augment the resuscitation skills of pediatric residents who may encounter any number of acute presentations on inpatient ward services. We feel Pediatric Emergency Simulation is an area of expertise for the group that we are able to bring to our on campus and off campus learners. OHSU School of Medicine, Med Student Simulation:
The Introduction to Patient Simulation course is OHSU's first simulation-based elective for second year medical students. This course is designed to act as a bridge between the non-clinical and clinical years of medical school, linking patient symptoms, exam findings, and management plans to students' basic science knowledge of anatomy, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. Each of the eight hour-long sessions highlights a cardinal presentation. By linking these diagnoses to a common symptom—such as shortness of breath—students are able to compare and contrast their patient's story and physical exam findings to the patients they have seen in prior sessions. This reinforces the critical exam findings, how these are explained by the pathophysiology of their disease process, and differences in management. Through this longitudinal experience, learners begin to build 'illness scripts', problem representations that help clinicians organize their knowledge of various disease processes into framework that enhances diagnostic reasoning. Our hope is that these preclinical simulated experiences will anchor the students' basic science knowledge in 'real life' patient encounters, and encourage a learning model whereby our students will compare and contrast the presentation and management of multiple disease processes simultaneously when they reach their clerkships.