Cath Lab Digest - October 2007 - (Page 43)

OCTOBER 2007 EDUCATION 43 A Glimpse of the Future of Clinical Education: Boston Scientific’s SimSuite Bus Visits Carnegie Institute Alan Bennett, RCIS, Program Director, Invasive Cardiovascular Technology, Carnegie Institute, Troy, Michigan. Photos by Michael Hacala, Clinical Coordinator, Carnegie Institute. Boston Scientific’s “big blue bus” (SimSuite) outside Carnegie Institute in Troy, Michigan. T he outside of the big blue bus catches your eye, but what’s inside blows you away. Even for an old-timer, the look and feel of the cath lab is uncanny. For new students, the thrill is electric! The mannequin speaks. The flouro virtually pulls you into the case. The touch of the catheter is realistic. All of this is a world away from the lecture room. If an instructor could wish for an ideal tool for combining classroom theory with real-world practice, it would be a clinical simulation lab. Carnegie Institute was recently privileged to have a visit by the Boston Scientific (Natick, MA) simulation van and the SimSuite (Medical Simulation Corporation, Denver, CO) hands-on demonstration team. Our invasive cardiovascular technology (CVT) instructors and students had an opportunity to work on a complex right coronary artery (RCA) lesion and manage the various complications that arose. A steady stream of administrative staff and admissions counselors were also able to view the process up close, providing them with a deeper understanding of the high-tech world their students will be entering. A first-hand account of the experience from one of our instructors follows, but I would like to take a moment now to share my thoughts about the urgent need for accelerating the availability of simulation technology for teaching health care professionals in the cath lab and other critical care settings. To take people, even those with a good foundation in a related field, such as paramedics, medical assistants and foreign medical graduates, and prepare them to work in a cath or electrophysiology (EP) lab is a complex and time-consuming process. It involves screening, lecturing, coaching and testing, and long hours in the classroom. All very necessary foundation work. Yet the high-performance clinical skills will come only with an enormous amount of repetition on real patients. Suppose we could rehearse those experiences in advance, under controlled conditions and with all kinds of complications thrown in, but with no risk to a living patient. The time from novice to veteran could be shortened dramatically. The boost to educational productivity would be revolutionary. The complaint about education being remote from practice fuels constant debate about reform in education, from early learning to the postgraduate level. With clinical simulation, we could link education and practice. Gone would be the horseand-buggy days of pure “didactic,” without the tactile reinforcement that makes the experience real and the learner proficient. While simulation technology remains expensive, the costs are coming down. An investment in partnering between educational institutions and businesses that possess this technology would generate a leap of productivity in education. The shortages of skilled physicians, nurses and technologists are growing. Today’s Carnegie Invasive CVT students Teresa Aboueljoud and Natalie Armstrong engaging the coronary artery in “Simantha.” “Uh oh, Teresa, what happened?” Medical Simulation Corporation clinical specialist Amy Trujillo looks on while Carnegie Invasive CVT students Teresa Aboueljoud and Natalie Armstrong consider their next move. Medical Simulation Corporation clinical specialist Amy Trujillo instructs Carnegie Invasive CVT students Teresa Aboueljoud and Natalie Armstrong to feel the “fish bite” when the catheter is advanced. demographics of age and disease compel an acceleration of the training pipeline. The old way of “learn theory in the classroom and slowly gain skills in practice in the real world” lags sorely behind as a method for meeting the challenges we face in high-tech medicine. Let’s consider what practical steps can be taken by sharing, partnering or pioneering to bring us closer to clinical simulation as the standard of medical education rather than a magical moment, over much too soon. My thanks to Boston Scientific for that magical moment and the lingering thirst for more! ■ The old way of “learn theory in the classroom and slowly gain skills in practice in the real world” lags sorely behind as a method for meeting the challenges we face in high-tech medicine.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cath Lab Digest - October 2007

Saints Medical Center Fibromuscular Dysplasia in Children and Adolescents Cerebral Vascular Accident Following a Pulmonary Embolism: Search for the Hidden Patent Foramen Ovale Contents Clinical Editor’s Corner Meetings Calendar CEU Education Center Radiation Tracking in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab Letter to the Editor Carotid Stenting: An update Release from Stent-jail: Beneficial Snow-Plowing? Patient Management Guidelines Searching for a Cardiovascular Position? Tips for Creating a ‘Stand-Out’ Resume Long-Term Implications of Short-Term Closure Decisions – The Evolution to Vascular Access Management and the Boomerang Catalyst System The Ten-Minute Interview with… Angie Bowles, RN, CCRN CMS Issues Final FY 2008 IPPS Rule ACVP• Membership Page Experience with a New Workhorse Guidewire Ask the Clinical Instructor: Q&A for Those New to Cath Lab A Glimpse of the Future of Clinical Education: Boston Scientific’s SimSuite Bus Visits Carnegie Institute 2007 Educational Fair Held at the Washington Hospital Center Research Update: Original Contribution Abstracts from The Journal of Invasive Cardiology What Do You Think? A Virtual Cath Lab Viewer (VCL): The Development of an Online 3D C-arm Simulator and Coronary Anatomy Viewer Clinical & Industry News Cost-Effectiveness of the Radial versus Femoral Artery Approach to Diagnostic Cardiac Catheterization

Cath Lab Digest - October 2007

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