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The clinical learning and simulation centre is housed inside UPEI’s new medical school. (Stacey Janzer\/CBC)<\/p>\nWhen Catherine O\u2019Brien began her acting career years ago, she never imagined it would one day lead her to a role on a medical school team.<\/p>\n
Her first experience came in Ontario, working part time with the University of Toronto on a program where regular people played patients in simulated medical scenarios to help train future health-care professionals.<\/p>\n
Now, the familiar P.E.I. actor and director is continuing that work at the University of Prince Edward Island\u2019s new medical school.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | UPEI’s Medical School has new patient simulation equipment for students:<\/p>\n
Island Morning8:56UPEI’s Medical School has new patient simulation equipment for students<\/p>\n
UPEI has a new Clinical Learning and Simulation Centre, where students can use manikins and other technology to learn about medicine before they start treating real patients. We\u00a0learn more about the centre and the work happening inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien works part time as a standardized patient at the clinical learning and simulation centre (CLSC). There, she plays scripted roles to help students practise skills in realistic situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will learn how to interview, how to ask the right questions, how to make the patient feel comfortable using empathy,\u201d O’Brien told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier during CBC\u2019s remote broadcast from the UPEI campus last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so we just respond to their questions, we tell them what our symptoms are and we go through a typical scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clinical learning and simulation centre is housed inside UPEI’s new medical school. (Stacey Janzer\/CBC)<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien said the centre\u2019s team of standardized patients comes from a wide range of backgrounds, not just actors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal here is so that the students can have an environment that is safe, that they don’t have to feel nervous, because\u2026 it’s a real situation that they will see with a simulated patient,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Training for the real world<\/p>\n
Paul Charles, the centre’s simulation program manager, said that beyond working with standardized patients, the program also includes other tools to replicate what learners will experience in real clinical settings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do that by recreating the simulation rooms like clinical hospital rooms, where they’re actually going to see medication carts and vitals machines, all the way to using manikins that can breathe and talk and cough and have heart attacks and seizures to expose the learners to the real thing and bridge that gap between classroom education and the real world,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that the students become more competent, more confident, which in turn improves the patient outcome, decreases the demand on the health-care system, and ultimately saves lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Simulation program manager Paul Charles says the centre uses tools like recreated clinical hospital rooms and high-fidelity manikins to expose learners to real-world scenarios. (Thinh Nguyen\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The training isn\u2019t just for students. Health-care professionals can also use the centre\u2019s equipment and resources to sharpen their skills.<\/p>\n
Tammie Muise, the centre\u2019s director, said a new addition \u2014 a \u201csimulation rig\u201d \u2014 will help bring that training directly into real health-care environments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a trailer that’s pulled by a truck, but in the back of that, it actually is the inside of an ambulance,\u201d Muise said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if they were simulating a situation where the ambulance was pulling up with someone who was having a stroke or a heart attack, that they could simulate that experience where we know, really, time is of the essence in those kinds of situations, so they can really fine-tune those skills to help improve patient outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for O\u2019Brien, she\u2019s already met some of the medical school\u2019s first cohort of students during their orientation day, and she looks forward to working with them in upcoming training sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a few coming up, which I’m excited to get going with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Catherine O\u2019Brien began her acting career years ago, she never imagined it would one day lead her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-226715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}