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Simulation Teaching Tools
The College of Osteopathic Medicine makes extensive use of simulated learning methods for all students during the first two years of medical school. This helps prepare students for the clinical experience of clerkships while on rotation during the third and fourth years.
Students receive extensive practice doing exams on standardized patients. They are not real patients, but rather people who have been trained to act out various health conditions. This helps students develop skills in the doctor-patient relationship and in clinical diagnosis.
Students also have access to the cardiovascular simulator called Harvey. By working with Harvey, students practice hearing heart sounds and pulmonary conditions.
To aid in learning clinical reasoning, students have access to computerized patient management through a library of cases called DxR. And to assist in learning surgical skills, extensive practice is provided in a specially designed skills laboratory that features many simulation devices.
Surgery Lab
Student in the surgery lab
Des Moines University Surgery Skills Center is located in Ryan Hall. The center includes simulation model labs, a computer technology lab and a simulation operating room lab.
The Basic Surgical Skills Course, taken in the second year, emphasizes the fundamentals of basic aseptic technique theory and applications of clinical practice. Under the direction of surgical residents, surgical nurses, and surgical teaching assistants, students are introduced to suturing, knot-tying, surgical instrumentation, donning surgical gown and gloves, dissection, intravenous insertion practices, and other clinical/surgical procedures and equipment.
The goal of this program is to provide students with a strong foundation in clinical/surgical skills prior to clinical rotation practice. As a result of this educational experience, students are prepared and confident to meet the challenges of performing and practicing skills during clinical rotations in their third and fourth years.
Harvey the Cardiac Simulator
Student with Harvey the cardiac simulator
The cardiac simulator is designed to reproduce abnormal heart sounds to teach students what murmurs, clicks, rubs, etc sound like. The sounds are used in conjunction with lectures on physiology and anatomy to help students learn what causes these abnormal heart sounds to appear. By using Harvey, the students learn how to perform an appropriate cardiac exam, which valves are affected with certain diseases, and how to recognize common abnormal heart sounds.
Human Simulation Models
A group of human medical simulators help students learn to care for critically ill "patients." These life-like mannequins have heart, lung, and bowel sounds which can be programmed to be normal or abnormal. Students can draw "blood" from the simulators, start IV's, catheterize, defibrillate, intubate, and perform chest compressions. The obstetrical mannequin also can deliver "babies" that are in good health or those that require resuscitation.
S.P.A.L.
Student with S.P.A.L. patient
The Standardized Performance Assessment Lab, or SPAL, is a simulated clinical setting that allows students to develop and refine their communication skills by working with actors trained to portray actual medical cases. Students gain valuable feedback on their diagnostic and communication skills by reviewing videotapes of their performance with simulated patients before seeing actual patients. Learn more about SPAL. »
DxR
To foster clinical skills, students use Diagnostic Reasoning (DxR) software. DxR provides a computer-based case history; students then work their way through a patient's history and physical, order appropriate labs and x-rays, and use all the information to formulate a diagnosis. A faculty member guides the students through the case studies.
All of these resources supplement and help with the regular teaching methods of lecture, small group activities, and teaching laboratories during the first two years.
